14 DAY TRIAL // As you can see, the Nintendo DSi is hot news these days. Everybody is talking about it, from Satoru Iwata, the president of the Japanese company, to other developers and game journalists. Now it's time for Sony to share their thoughts on Nintendo's new gadget, through the voice of their director of hardware marketing, John Koller.
“Nintendo has kind of a history of these moderate 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. I can see the DSi being successful. 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.”
He definitely stresses an important issue there. The DS and DS Lite weren't very attractive for adult gamers. Sure, some games were really well made and developed but in the end, the bulk of its game library is made up of titles which appeal to young audiences or casual gamers. Although Sony have attracted these markets a number of times, they still have games for their handheld console, the PlayStation Portable, which attract players of all ages, and most of all, hardcore gamers.
Either way, the DSi will definitely sell: the user base loyal to Nintendo is very large and will surely buy the new handheld console solely because it has the logo of their favorite manufacturer on. Beyond those users, the DSi might be in a challenging situation (as we said yesterday): it won't match Apple's iPhone or Sony's PSP but it may be able to create its own unique niche market.
In the end, until the release of the new gadget in Japan, on November 1, it's really hard to make any prediction. We will just have to wait and see.