Nintendo Says Mobile Gaming No Threat
Many of us can remember our first cellphones; not quite the gigantic monstrosities that are parodied in anything related to the early 90s but still sizeable pieces of technology with monochrome screens and large pixels. My first cellphone had an Othello game that I played many times, but since that time they’ve come a long ways. With more and more complex phones like the iPhone some are expecting the mobile phone gaming market to blow up, and others are expecting it’ll drive existing handhelds out of demand.
Most of the people making these predictions though either have a vested interest in saying so (like working for Apple) or aren’t involved in the industry (business analysts). Nintendo has insisted that they’re not concerned about the mobile gaming industry, saying that they in no way designed the DSi as a competitor for the iPhone or other cellphone gaming devices.
David Yarnton, general manager of Nintendo UK said that in designing the system the company left out many features they could have included, planning on keeping with their approach of letting the software sell systems. “We could have added lots of things, but then you become a jack of all trades, and a master of none. One of the things we are really honest about is that we stay faithful to our roots, of being a games company. The most important criterion is to make sure that what we’re offering can do the best games.”
He’s also warning people already that systems will be in short supply come this holiday season.