Topic: Nintendo Targeting China

[WindyMan]

Even though it's one of the world's piracy hotspots, Nintendo still wants to enter the Chinese market.

Nintendo's total worldwide GameCube shipment total is around the 10 million mark, which is on pace with Microsoft and far behind Sony, which has PS2 shipments upwards of 50 million.  Because of the GameCube's lackluster sales, Nintendo is looking to enter a new market to help make up some sales.

China is one of the biggest countries responsible for videogame piracy, yet Nintendo thinks that with a new strategy, they can successfully market products there.   Exactly when Nintendo will start entering China or what products will be sold there are unknown at the time.  

The Asahi Shimbun article also mentioned a detail of Nintendo's new rewards system.  Much like the European system, consumers will need to register on the internet.  The information collected via this registration process will be used to analyze customer tendencies.

[JB]

The European rewards system has, up until now, not been worth the effort. The only things you can get with the reward points are wallpapers and screensavers for your computer. NOE did give away GBA's and WaveBirds but only 25 of each. Although NOE keeps promising to improve the system by adding permanent items such as accessories(the Game Boy Player was even specifically mentioned before its launch) and games, nothing has changed yet. What has happened in Europe is that nobody is spending their points at all, and a lot of people have stopped registering their games completely. Nintendo really needs to do change somehing in this system if it expects it to work.
Entering the Chinese market would probably be a good idea for Nintendo. The GameCube is the only console that hasn't been hacked by software pirates yet, mainly because of Nintendo's very well designed security system to prevent running unsigned code. (hackers have found a way to run unsigned cod, but this method is luckily enough not suitable for piracy).

[Plugabugz]

Do JB and I seem to make up the Nintendo Europe side of PGC?

I never heard much of the rewards system in Europe. But then again, I doubt people would be raving it up if we only get wallpaper and screensavers.

[Djunknown]

(Off topic)
Yay! I'm back after nearly 36 hours with no lights, no electricity (Big Blackout in the NE U.S and Ontario). But Good Old GBA kept me sane (And lots of reading during the daylight...)

(On Topic)
My underlying assumption was that the Chinese were including when targeting their Asian markets. Scrap that one I'spose. But you'd think they'd (officially) enter that market earlier because its only one sea away! It'd be interesting how it would affect world sales, as mentioned earlier its nearly hack proof.

[RABicle]

Sadly guys, because it's a hot spot for piracy the Gamecube will never succeed in China. "Oh it's so hard to crack" thats only gonna turn consumers off even more.
et's say you were the average gamer in China, would you rather the console where teh makers would receive the money, or the console where you can buy 50 games with the change in your pockets? I'm guessing the latter. I've lived in a place called Vanuatu (check your atlases for a small bunch of islands just North of Fiji in the Pacific). I lived there in 1999, the reign of the playstation and N64. You could buy both consoles there. For $5US you could buy a Playstation game. For about $150US you could buy a N64 game. Take a guess which one was selling better. Sure, Sony wasn't making any money at all, but neither was Nintendo and in the end, the gamers there liked sony games better, because no one could be bothered geting the money togethor to play nintendo. The exackt same thing will happen in China, mark my words. Sure the Chinese wont be able to crack the gamecube, bt they wont sell any either.

[Michael8983]

I'm sure Nintendo will do everything in its power to keep the games as cheap as possible. The GCN discs are at least a lot cheaper to manufacture than the N64 cartridges. Iwata mentioned the rampant piracy and low-incomes in China at the press conference. He obviously understands the obstacles facing Nintendo's success in China but thinks he can make this work anyway.
Obviously, the GCN games won't be as popular as all the pirated PS2 games but at least Nintendo might make some money.

[JB]

Maybe the people at Nintendo of Europe read this forum Plugabugz, from next Monday they will be giving away things like t-shirts and games in exchange for stars(the reward system points). Hopefully I can finally get a GameBoy Player for free!

[PIAC]

uuuhm, wrong thread JB