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Nintendo: "disposable" games are damaging the industry

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Head of Nintendo US, Reggie Fils-Aime, is not a fan of your typical App Store downloadable games. This isn’t because he thinks they’re rubbish, it’s because he thinks they’re too cheap. More importantly, he thinks the price tag is setting a precedent and that the target market for future Nintendo 3DS games is going to be tougher to crack.

Of course, he wasn’t that candid, but you can totally get that that’s what he’s trying to say, he just words it differently to make sure he doesn’t sound miffed by this cheaper competition. He was recently asked whether he thought the $35 to $45 price tag for 3DS games represented value for money when compared with the $1 App Store games.

According to Fils-Aime:

“I actually think that one of the biggest risks today in our industry are these inexpensive games that are candidly disposable from a consumer standpoint… Angry Birds is a great piece of experience but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that for one or two dollars I think actually create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be two dollars.”

It’s an interesting point of view if you look at this situation within the context of casual gamers, which is the market Nintendo is targeting more and more. Core gamers who have been Nintendo fans for years will obviously know games are worth more than $2. But with the casual market being entertained by App Store “disposable” games $1 to $2 a pop, he might have a point. It could also be an apples and pears scenario; downloadable Angry Birds is a very different product to a retail release of Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Source: Eurogamer
Header: Jason Lee [via Kotaku]

Last Updated: February 7, 2011

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