Ninetendo gaat dezelde kant op als sega....
Nintendo to focus on games rather than consoles
TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo plans to expand its share of the video game market by focusing on making better games rather than on building increasingly powerful game players, its new president said Thursday.
The Kyoto-based game maker that brought the world Pokemon and Super Mario must take a new and distinctive approach as an entertainment company to compete with rivals Sony and Microsoft, said Satoru Iwata, who took his post last week.
"We can't be optimistic about the game market. No matter what great product you come up with, people get bored," he said, referring to game players at a meeting with analysts at a Tokyo hotel. "I feel like a chef cooking for a king who's full."
Sony's PlayStation 2 machine has been leading the pack with 30 million sold worldwide in the three-way game war that also includes the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox.
Nintendo has shipped about 4 million GameCube machines, while Microsoft is expecting to ship 3.5 million to 4 million Xbox consoles by the end of June. All three makers have slashed machine prices recently to woo game fans around the world.
Iwata, a 42-year-old game software developer who joined Nintendo two years ago, said selling a game console is totally different from selling, say, a washing machine.
People won't imagine buying another washing machine unless it breaks down, he said. But Nintendo wants to make great games so even people who own a Sony PlayStation 2 will go out and get a GameCube.
Although Iwata declined to give details of what Nintendo has in the works, he gave one example of where his company hopes to differ: It won't pursue online games, judging them as still too limited in appeal.
Nintendo is also planning more games that link the Game Boy Advance, the company's hit portable machine, with GameCube. It will exploit its lineup of exclusive games like Mario and Zelda, while working more with outside game developers.
"The element of surprise is critical. But delivering surprise is becoming extremely difficult," said Hiroshi Yamauchi, Iwata's predecessor who built his tiny card-maker into a global video-game giant. "Game developers are running out of ideas."
Yamauchi, 74, who is stepping down after five decades at the company's helm, said that developing games has grown too time-consuming and expensive. Nintendo hopes to come up with profitable games more quickly without compromising on their appeal, he said.
In the latest fiscal year ended in March, Nintendo posted a profit of 106 billion yen ($849 million), up 10% from the previous year, on a 20% rise in sales.
While scoffing at the focus on machine sales, Iwata said he remains determined to sell GameCube, targeting 50 million in worldwide sales by March 2005.
"The effort to produce machines with better technology has reached its limit," Iwata said. "If things continue, they may lead to the decline of the entire game industry."
Laatst bewerkt: 6 jun 2002
