News Hound: This Week In Gaming Issue 5

By James Temperton 15.05.2003 1

News Hound
Cubed3 takes a look at the wise words of Nintendo's president...


Satoru Iwata, increased his reputation for having cold words, as he harshly responded to Sony's announcement concerning their new portable console, PSP, and also about rumours concerning a GameCube price drop. When questioned about the PSP, Iwata dismissed it explaining that Nintendo had no fear of the console. Following a 10% price drop in Nintendo's shares after Sony announced the PSP, Iwata said the hype around the project was excessive and overrated. He explained how it was a joke that Sony wanted to compete with the Game Boy, explaining that the GBA had nothing to fear, as all we really know at this point of time is the title of the console and it's optical media. While being questioned on the show floor of E3, Iwata added that Nintendo would not rush the next incarnation of the Game Boy, and to be truthful they don't need to, they totally dominate the handheld market.

When questioned about a rumoured GameCube price drop, he explained that Nintendo had no plans for a price cut, even though the Xbox and PlayStation 2's prices are set to be slashed. He also had cold words concerning their rival companies emphasised online features, proclaiming that charging a monthly fee for the service as well as expecting the player to pay for his or her Internet connection was disgraceful.

So, what does this news mean for Nintendo? Well it certainly is dangerous news for the giants from Japan. They have had relative safety with the GameBoy for so many years, and all other contenders have fallen to the sidelines. The problem is simple, SONY are not any old contender. They will be up for a fight and be ready to unsettle the GBA from its dominant position in the handheld market. The simple fact is that Nintendo will not be used to such a challenge in this part of their business. How SONY decide to market and style their console will not even touch the importance of what Nintendo do to counteract this. We will see how things unfold nearer the time.

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

There are no replies to this article yet. Why not be the first?

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
juzzy

There are 1 members online at the moment.