14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo sold less DS handhelds than expected during its first quarter and the company even turned a loss because of the overall weakness of the market and the price cuts it has implemented. But one of the biggest developers of video game hardware and software in the world is looking for the future and thinking about how it can make gaming as a pass time more acceptable for a wider audience, eliminating the stereotypes associated with hardcore players.
Satoru Iwata, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Nintendo, has told investors during a Question & Answer sessions that, “Of course, we should try our best to produce appealing products which keep users excited, but on the other hand, it is a big problem if such excitement causes family troubles or affects a user's life balance”. He added that “I believe that the social acceptance of video games will never improve if we just aim for user absorption without being aware of the potential problems.”
It seems that the company is thinking about adding an option to the upcoming Nintendo 3DS platform that would allow parents to set hard limits for the playing time of their children, shutting down the console when it expires. The decision was also considered when the Nintendo Wii was in development but the company opted to introduce a log that clearly shows how much time each video game was played on the device. The Nintendo 3DS is set to arrive before the end of this year in Japan, where a press conference linked to pricing will take place on September 21, and will also be launched by spring 2011 in Europe and North America.
Nintendo says that a recent survey conducted in Japan showed that just 18 percent of respondents said they liked video games very much, while the percentage rose to 46 and 33 when the question referred to television shows and movies.