Rumour - PS3 price cuts planned for March 2009
Only 4% of games ever turn a profit, says EEDAR
Yamauchi - Gran Turismo still in the works for PSP
October 6th, 2008 @ 22:57
Speaking to Gizmodo, SCEA marketing boss John Koller’s opined that DSi isn’t enough to move Nintendo’s handheld business out of its traditional 12 year-old male demographic
“I can see the DSi being successful,” said the exec. “The DS lite was obviously very successful. Will DSi do well with [the DS’s] demographic? It probably will. Will it be a product that expands their user base [beyond] under 12? I’m not sure.”
Koller added that the machine was likely to do well, nonetheless.
“Nintendo has kind of a history of these kinds of updates, and even with DS Lite, there was a lot of discussion, ‘Is that enough?’ And they seemed to do pretty well there,” he said.
Pretty well, yeah. More through the link.
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Hang on… did he just suggest the DS’s demographic is under 12s and needs expanding? I can’t think of another piece of gaming hardware that such a wide range of ages use.
Other than perhaps the Wii.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:05 am
He was referring to the brain age. :o)
October 7th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Lol!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:53 am
maybe sony should fucking mind their own business. and worry about the psp and why it has very few quality games. i own a psp and there is nothing worth spending my money on.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I’m probably going to be flamed for this, but such is the curse of the soothsayer. Before I go on though, I would like to stress that I have a few DS’s lying around and it’s my favourite hand-held console. And things like Time Hollow being available for it (thank you Play Asia) only make it just that much better. I dig the DS.
Right, with that buffer there… I think the DSi is going to be a huge flop. From what I remember, it has a 0.3 (not 3, 0.3) megapixel camera, the same as very old cellphones, the SD card slot is limited to only 2GiB cards and less, and the battery life has been cut in half (as I know I’ve seen posted here). And I haven’t mentioned that it loses its GBA slot and therefore all backwards compatibility, too.
The only positives? The upper screen is now a touch-screen, and the screens are a tiny bit bigger (extra emphasis on the tiny bit). Oh and it’s a bit thinner, and it has an online shop thing.
Nintendo US is also hesitant to bring the DSi to America any time soon, and that’s probably because it sees the same thing. The DS Lite is great value for money at the moment, it’s a great earner for them because it sells so well, and people are generally enamoured with it. If they bring the DSi out, it might cause confusion with the DS Lite brand and actually bring negative press towards the DS in general which would reflect upon the DS Lite, potentially hurting sales.
Really, for the minor boons offered, I think the caveats are just too heavy. Nintendo loaded it down with too much useless junk, the camera and the SD slot they could’ve done away with, and they could’ve spent time ensuring that the battery life remained as it was.
I was enthusiastic about the DSi a bit ago too, when I thought that the battery life was the only issue… third party batteries can fix that. But when I read about the rest of its design flaws? Eesh.
So I think that the DSi won’t have much of an impact either, simply because it is a bit of diddling in my honest opinion. The DS Lite is a grand little hand-held console, and I think Ninty US would be wise to stick to their guns and stand by their stance to not bring it out too soon.
They need to see which way the wind blows with the device in Japan first, at the very least.
[Edited to add “any time soon”, regarding the post below.]
October 7th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Where did you hear that NoA are hesitant abut the DSi?
October 7th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I made an error there, I had intended to say “any time soon”. It had been posted here previously that they were delaying the DSi until some point in 2009 for various reasons. And if that’s not hesitation over a release, I don’t know what is.
But still, I did miss the “any time soon” and I apologise for that. That was my error. I’m far from infallible. …and now I’m being an apologixt, I’m Pe–no, I won’t go there.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:08 am
No good games for the PSP? I’m drowning in them at the moment. Lots of nice third party ones too
Admittedly, there’s a distinct lack of non-games and games ending in “z” on the PSP. Or remakes of GBA games. Or floods of sudoku and condescending ‘training’ games. Oh well.
Sony’s comments can be taken either way. If Nintendo’s handheld audience is already so very wide then it’s fair to say it my not expand further with the DSi. See?
Reading comprehension. Get some.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I agree with Shatner, the hefty amount of shovelware on the DS dosnt make it any better then the PSP, it seriously lacks real quailty games.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Gekidami… The DS lacks real quality games just because it has a lot of shovelware? Does the shovelware magically cancel out the good stuff then?
The most popular platforms (DS, PS2, Wii) will always be filled with shovelware.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
12yo male demographic? He has looked at the DS bay in a game store, right?
October 7th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I’m sure he has Tiger, I’m sure he has