Reggie Fils-Aime (head of Nintendo of America) was recently interviewed by Forbes during which he chatted about the opposition. Not just the other large hardware and gaming companies, but companies and services that you wouldn’t expect, with Fils-Aime admitting, “I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaperâ€.
He means that he competes with the above for people’s attention. The more time people spend using Nintendo products the better. About the traditional rivals to Nintendo however, Fils-Aime’s response was somewhat untraditional but perfectly logical in light of the amount of time people spend using their devices.
Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation brand were Nintendo’s chief concern in recent years. Fils-Aime thinks that’s all about to change: “Do I think that in the near future they [Apple] can hurt us more than Microsoft? Absolutely.â€
However, Fils-Aime maintains that from a gaming perspective Nintendo will continue to hold its own against Job’s company; Nintendo’s focus is on casual and core gaming. Apple’s focus is largely casual gaming with smaller titles that people can pick up for a couple of minutes.
If Nintendo is looking at Apple as its biggest opposition, one has to wonder what market Nintendo has its sights on. There’s a ton of money to be made from casual gamers. Or is Fils-Aime foreshadowing that a number of traditional Nintendo gamers are going to be jumping ship to Apple’s devices in the future? He probably has little to worry about for the next year or so; we all know that the 3DS is going to sell an obscene amount of units when it launches in 2011.
Source: CVG
Last Updated: October 25, 2010
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
October 25, 2010 at 13:41
To be honest, I don’t think Nintendo has been worried about Microsoft or Sony for a very long time. The DS is ultimately the Big N’s main product (selling almost double the units as the Wii), so it’s natural that they would go head to head with Apple and its Ipad.
It’s interesting times for gaming, and there’s a part of me that kind of hopes Apple would try its hand (no pun intended) at a dedicated hand-held gaming system. The irony is that the much despised Newton was actually a head of its time. :blush:
lans
October 25, 2010 at 14:30
honestly i don’t think nintendo will admit it,but they have a deep hatred for sony.
The only company that seems to be able to steal real market share away from nintendo is sony.
Sony did it with the playstation 1, and now with the move as soon as it was realed the ps3 has been outselling the wii worldwide for a while, whilst the sales are not outstanding, There is no way nintendo does not see sony as a competitor, i mean nintendo have called sony out on so many occassions! , the rumble idea was copied, Final fantasy left them for Sony, Media Molecule which Nintendo was originally going to contract and buy was taken by Sony. I mean Monster Hunter 3 was supposed to be a ps3 exclusive, and with the psp connectivity and its success, would you not think monster hunter on ps3 is a no brainer in japan?
sorry for the rant have time to kill today.