14 DAY TRIAL // As the Nintendo 3DS handheld reaches the European and Japanese markets important Nintendo figures, like Satoru Iwata, the chief executive officer, and Reggie Fils-Aime, the American division president, have talked about the threat posed by low-priced games on the iPhone and Android platforms.
It seems that Nintendo is trying to position itself and the 3DS as an alternative in the world of mobile gaming, with bigger prices but also more complex experiences.
Hideki Konno, who is the leader of development on the Nintendo 3DS project, has stated, “So now in terms of one dollar games, or free games, or whatever that is out there in the market, I mean, really, we're not going to be competing with that.”
He added, “We're not going to try to match that; we're just going to continually strive to not just maintain, but increase, the quality of the entertainment that we're providing, and let it sort itself out. Again, we're not worried about competing at a price point level.”
Konno believes that other video game companies, like Microsoft and Sony, would also like to see the majority of games sell above the 40 dollars price mark instead of plunging down towards the 5 dollars median seen in mobile markets.
The Nintendo executive was careful to say that mobile games are clearly valuable to a set of customers but that Nintendo is aiming at a different market, one which needs the complexity that can only be created by using significant development resources.
The Nintendo 3DS, which allows players to experience full three-dimensional games without the use of any glasses, has already been launched in Japan and is closing on one million units sold, and the device is set to arrive this week both in North America and Europe.
Sony is also preparing a PlayStation Portable 2 handheld for launch later in 2011.