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Nintendo to Work on Emerging Markets With a New Console

by Zack Kaplan - May 12, 2014, 2:59 pm EDT
Total comments: 6 Source: Bloomberg

Iwata says Nintendo wants to make a new console for specifically previously untapped markets.

President and CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, revealed that the company plans on making new console aimed at emerging markets.

“We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have, The product and price balance must be made from scratch,” Iwata said on the matter. Nintendo is currently looking into plans for Chinese console releases by studying their regulations, as they recently ended a 13-year ban on video game consoles.

While the innovation is brewing, one thing is for certain: Nintendo (or at least Iwata) is not turning to the smartphone market. "We have had a console business for 30 years, and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model," Iwata stated. "Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied."

Talkback

StrawHousePigMay 12, 2014

Pleasepleaseplease Emuboy!!  :P`

Oh, yeah...  :'(

BlackNMild2k1May 12, 2014

VC smartbox incoming.

test grounds for the hybrid model coming in 2 years time.

BlackNMild2k1May 12, 2014

oh, could this also be the "new hardware" that they are not showing at E3 this year?

nickmitchMay 12, 2014

I doubt they'd show it at E3.  It'd have to be announced at something tailored for that audience.  I'm also really glad Nintendo is jumping on this.  That market is gonna end up a cash cow for them, if they can beat Sony.  I doubt MS will get there, and Nintendo has enough experience porting all of the games that they should be able to get something out quick.

Quote:

"Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied."

Not to sound too fanboyish, but I couldn't agree more with that statement.

azekeMay 12, 2014

As a representative of these "emerging markets", i am highly doubting their ability to invent anything to pull people away from piracy ridden PC.

azekeMay 13, 2014

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140508qa/03.html

I have read Iwata 's Q&A which was probably the origin of this news, somewhere down the line of the broken telephone.

While these kind of mangled misquotes can (and will!) portray Iwata as a goof and out of touch businessman, his actual words actually nail the problem of trying to pierce "emerging markets" right on the head:

Quote:

Previously, we distributed products to new markets after they had sold well in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Australia and a steady production scheme had been established. In other words, we have sold the same products in the new markets, at the same price range: 150-300 dollars for hardware and 30-60 dollars for software. Of course, a number of users are willing to pay these prices, including passionate Nintendo fans, and we are very grateful for this. However, in making sure that our products have a large mass-market presence in these new markets, since hardware production costs have become increasingly high compared to the selling price, and in terms of software, having users pay 30-60 dollars is more difficult in the new markets than in developed ones, we cannot simply localize the same product for distribution in the new markets as they would otherwise never become true mass-market products.

This is probably the most on point quote on this region from any gaming executive i've heard in like ever.

People here don't care about hardware price. At all. Russians, chinese and other people in the PC dominated areas (Asia and CIS) buy gaming PCs that go as high as $2000+ without batting an eye and so did i.

BUT! Games that cost $30+ just don't and will never fly here. People even have huge trouble justifying buying special CIS-region locked versions of games for $10 -- why bother if they can get that for free?

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