14 DAY TRIAL // Gamers have long though that pressure coming from new mobile devices, mainly smartphones, will lead to companies like Nintendo and Sony dropping the prices of the video games that they are launching on the Nintendo DS and on the PlayStation Portable.
But recent comments from one of the main public figures from Nintendo suggests that this might not happen in the near future.
Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the president of Nintendo of America, has spoken about low-priced mobile games for Apple and Android platforms to GameTrailers, saying, “Angry Birds is a great piece of experience but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that for one or two dollars I think create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be $2.”
The executive says that games on the Nintendo made line up of handhelds offer a more complex experience than titles like Angry Birds, saying that the Rovio title and those similar to it could actually be “overpriced at $1 or $2, but that's a different story”.
Some developers have complained about the high development costs associated with the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, mainly linked to the three dimensional gaming capabilities that the new handheld will introduce.
Nintendo has said that not all video games for its new platform need to be delivered in 3D and suggested that development costs would be coming down as time goes by.
At the moment video games for the DS family are sold for between 35 and 45 dollars when they first come to market, and Nintendo says that the quality of the experiences they deliver and the popularity of the characters they are using will lead to continued high sales.
The post launch line up for the Nintendo 3DS includes titles like Metal Gear Solid, a new Zelda, Resident Evil and Dead or Alive.