Iwata: Smartphones and tablets have changed the industry

[garyopa]

Must 'differentiate' in order to survive...



According to Nintendo's president, 'smartphones and tablets have changed the environment that they operate in', need to 'offer something exclusive' to survive.

In an interview with UK newspaper The Independent, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata said that the rise of smartphones and tablets has altered the landscape in which Nintendo operates.

And while he said that competition from the iPad and iPhone has not had a "major effect" on the success of Nintendo's portable devices, the firm must "offer something exclusive" in order to survive.

"I don’t think this is a central factor, I think it’s much more about our lack of ability to release software in a timely matter that will motivate people to go out and buy our gaming hardware," Iwata said.

"But obviously smartphones and tablets have changed the environment that we operate in and we can no longer offer some kinds of games experiences that couldn’t also easily be offered on a smartphone, so we need to differentiate and offer something exclusive," he said. "I think if we can offer exclusive entertainment that cannot be replicated on other devices then we’ll have the chance to survive."

He also stated that the company would not be selling the 3DS XL console at a loss, and added that they had no plans to integrate a second analogue stick into the unit as it would have necessitated a reduction in the size of the battery or made the unit significantly bigger than it already is.

"Attaching a second analogue stick is possible but it would have made the system even bigger. It perhaps puts a burden on people that really want that second stick, [but] it’s a call we had to make and these people will have to live with it. When we looked at the design of the 3DS XL we had to look at various factors. One was battery life, one was the overall size of the unit, and we had to make some trade-offs. The choice, if we were going to include the second analogue stick, was to reduce the size of the battery or make the unit much bigger.

 

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And finally, he talked about digital distribution, and reiterated that the firm has no intention of entirely cutting out the retail intermediaries.

“I think for a lot of consumers it’s still important that they can go to a store and in-store they have a presence of our products and this is where they can be informed and then purchase our products. For us it’s still quite important to have the traditional retailers as our partners and to see how we can work together with them and involve them in the distribution model – and also for digital products.
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Check out the full interview below!

NEWS SOURCE #1: Satoru iWata on Wii-U I think it will become increasingly difficult from now on to compete over graphics (via) Indenpendent
NEWS SOURCE #2: Nintendo we must differentiate to survive against Smartphones tablets (via) GameSpot

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[billysastard]

it does offer something exclusive.

retail games, controls and accurate touchscreens

[Diztructor]

He also stated that the company would not be selling the 3DS XL console at a loss, and added that they had no plans to integrate a second analogue stick into the unit as it would have necessitated a reduction in the size of the battery or made the unit significantly bigger than it already is.

ok what a load of sh1te, nintendo havent added the second analogue because they want to force people to go out and pay more for it, just like theyre doing with the sodding charger for the 3DS XL.

it wouldnt make the system any bigger, theres loads of room for the second analogue either at the top of the buttons, or below, nintendo are just chatting sh1t, tell you what does make it bigger, the cricle pad pro addon, will make it even bigger.

how will adding another analogue effect the battery life (unless nintendo have put a cheaper battery inside this one) when the vita has no problem with the battery considering the system has a larger screen and has a powerfuller system to support.

youll likely find in a year or two after everyones rushed out and baught this, that theyll then release another version with the analogue built in (but not before they re release the XL with its charger included).