Nintendo: Only Rival Is ‘Indifferent’ Consumer

Nintendo’s biggest challenge to further market expansion is the remaining “consumer indifferent to games,” says Nintendo Korea’s chief executive — who doesn’t consider Microsoft and Sony to be direct rivals.

Speaking to The Korea Herald, Mineo Koda claims that the company has seen no sign of hardware sales being affected by the global economic downturn.

Nintendo claims that the recent launch of Wii Fit has apparently been performing relatively well in South Korea, which is not historically a console-rich market. Nintendo DS sales also continue to rise, passing the two million mark in 2008.

“Sales of our products do not depend on whether the economy is good or not, but whether we introduce fun products or not. I realized this through my experience in the video game industry,” said the 25 year Nintendo veteran.

With South Korea boasting one of the fastest broadband infrastructures in the world, PC gaming has long dominated in the country. However, Koda still describes the online market as having “a limited audience.”

“We believe that the Korean market has growth potential as there are many people who are not interested in online games and who used to play online games, but do not play them anymore,” he said. “We would like to continue our challenge of broadening our customer base in Korea.”

He concluded: “As there were many violent games, many parents had negative images of games. We face a major challenge of changing those negative images.”

However, Koda did not address piracy, which is still a major problem in South Korea, with DS flash carts and even pirated Wii software apparently limiting official software sales significantly, in some cases.

Nintendo Files Patent For In-Game Walkthroughs

 

Nintendo has filed for a patent on a game system which would allow players to view pre-recorded gameplay and solutions unfolding in realtime.

Nintendo virtuoso Shigeru Miyamoto filed the patent on June 30, 2008, but,noted by game weblog Kotaku, it became public only recently. 

The patent hinges on a form of automated gameplay — likely sequences pre-recorded by a game’s developer — that users can turn on, described as “digest moving image.” For example, it could show a game’s character navigating a level to reveal its solutions to stuck players — or simply to allow players to experience it without investing the time for an entire playthrough.

It appears there are a few sub-sections of the system, with one mode revealing pop-up gameplay hints throughout play and another allowing players to watch a play-through. Through a third “scene menu” option, players can choose specific segments of gameplay to view without relying on existing save data.

The system doesn’t appear to allow players to actually bypass gameplay or save progress made by the automated playthrough. Specifically, the patent refers also to the method for storing pre-played gameplay data that doesn’t interfere with the user’s own gameplay saves.

The objective of the technology appears essentially to encourage completion of more games by allowing players to discover solutions more quickly and reduce the time investment required for large games.

“In some of these games, a volume of the story or the scenario is too large, and therefore a lot of time is needed for clearing the game,” reads the patent text. “Further, in some cases, various puzzles are set in the scenario, and/or a skilled action (operation to be performed by a player) and the like are required, so as to enhance an interest in the game.” 

“However, there is a problem that these puzzles and the like are too difficult, and therefore the game may be stuck halfway, and the game may not be cleared to the end.”

Simply providing hints has been insufficient to decrease barriers for players lacking in time and attention, the patent maintains. Such players “may not enjoy the large volume of game to the end and give up the game halfway even when the difficulty level of game is lowered by presenting a hint or the like in the middle of the game,” reads the text.

“Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program for allowing a player to freely play and enjoy the game to the end, and a game apparatus.”

This ease of use should be balanced in a fashion that allows more traditional players to continue to play independently and be challenged, the patent text maintains, hence the need for the storage system:

“Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program for preventing a player who desires to clear a game by him/herself from losing his/her interest in the game, and a game apparatus.”

2008 In Review, Oct-Dec: Struggles And Trends At Year-End

Over the holiday and into the new year, we’ve rounded up a news summary aimed at providing a complete look back on 2008’s memorable events.

Following our round-up of January to March, April to June and July to September, we conclude with a look back on October through December.

October 2008

October began with big news for Nintendo, as the company revealed several long-rumored projects at a Tokyo press conference. First, they showed a new, revamped DSi handheld featuring a camera, the ability to play music and download games, and an SD storage slot.

The Wii’s much-discussed storage issues would receive a fix in Spring 2009 with the addition of its own SD card slot, and Nintendo seemed to be aiming to address the demands of the hardcore audience with the upcoming Punch-Out Wii remake.

It was a month for major presentations, it seemed; BlizzCon revealed that Starcraft II would release as a trilogy, while LucasArts and BioWare announced their joint project: the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.

In business news, Southpeak (Ninjatown, Roogoo) acquired fellow publisher Gamecock and its upcoming titles, including Legendary, Mushroom Men and Velvet Assassin.

Additionally, economic challenges began to knock on Electronic Arts’ door, as the company announced 600 layoffs, the start of a disappointing holiday season for the publisher.

November 2008

November was the month that more companies began to show signs of feeling the recession, or simply the results of unsuccessful business models.

EA consolidated its casual business and shuttered its Blueprint studio, Brash made portentous layoffs, and Midway’s year-long struggles took it into critical status.

After taking the trip in space he’d always dreamed of, NCsoft’s Richard Garriott announced he was leaving the company. Tabula Rasa’s launch proved to have been far less successful than Garriott’s space flight, however, as NCsoft saw its profits sliced in half.

Nonetheless, speaking at the BMO Capital Markets event in New York, many of the top publishers gave bullish talks on the state of their business, aiming to prove their resilience to their investors. Microsoft said it was “pretty comfortable,” Ubisoft said 2009 was set to be a ‘great year’, and Nintendo expressed confidence that its “gaming for everyone” strategy would continue to create “evergreen” products that would post long-term steady sales.

December 2008

Crediting underperforming holiday sales, EA reduced its estimates for the year, planning to cut its portfolio in favor of a focus on less-risky hitmakers and reducing yet more staff.

The company apparently wasn’t about to cut all creative risks, though — it then revealed that Double Fine’s Brutal Legend, arguably the most-buzzed castoff from the Activision Blizzard merger, had found a home with EA.

Joining the influx of Japanese companies looking to better address the needs of Western audiences, Namco Bandai created a new Western-focused label called Surge, which had been quietly at work on Afro Samurai for some two years already.

Finally, just two months after snubbing Electronic Arts’ $25.74 per share offer in September, Take-Two, like many of its fellow publishers facing economic constraints, saw its shares down significantly.

Trading at just about $9 and with losses widening, the company made a big move to keep its key Rockstar talent in a largely unprecedented deal: key employees of the studio received a new contract that allowed for profit-sharing.

More significantly, the contract gave those employees the ability to own their own IP to be funded and published by Take-Two — a key concession, but one that kept the Grand Theft Auto IV masterminds working for the publisher.

Nintendo To Offer Streaming Video Service On Wii In 2009

Nintendo has announced a partnership with Japanese company Dentsu to distribute original streaming video programming via the Wii, with a 2009 launch confirmed in Japan, and an eye towards a later Western launch.

According to an official Nintendo statement translated by the AFP news service, the company’s partnership with advertising firm Dentsu will include some ad-supported but free videos, and some pay-to-watch videos.

The companies particularly announced: “Nintendo and Dentsu shall use the environment surrounding the Wii so that living rooms with Wii-ready TVs would become more of a fun area for communication among families and friends.”

Analysts have been discussing this expansion possibility for some time — a recent Gamasutra-published opinion piece from The Diffusion Group noted: “In order for the Wii to remain competitive in the long-term, Nintendo must enable Wii-based… video services of some kind.”

Interestingly, Nintendo is allowing multiple approaches to the problem, with Japanese firm Fujisoft already launching Minna-no Theater Wii (Everyone’s Theater for Wii) in Japan for WiiWare on January 27th.

This pay-per-view service “enables people to enjoy video content any time at home by video streaming playback on Wii,” and will cost 100 to 400 Wii points ($1 to $4) per video. However, it appears that the Nintendo and Dentsu partnership may be the higher profile one. POSTED: 02.58AM PST, 12/29/08

- Nintendo Debuts New DS Colors, Bundles For Black Friday

Nintendo of America plans to release two new limited-edition Nintendo DS Lite bundles on November 28th, the day following Thanksgiving.

The Mario Red Nintendo DS bundle includes a red DS lite branded with a Mario “M,” and a copy of New Super Mario Bros., originally released May 2006.

The Ice Blue Nintendo DS bundle comes with an Ice Blue DS Lite, a custom system case, and a copy of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, which released in April 2006. Both products are priced at $149.99.

This will mark the second year in a row that Nintendo has debuted system bundles on “Black Friday.” In 2007, the company released gold and metallic rose DS Lites with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Nintendogs, respectively.

The Ice Blue edition of the DS Lite has been available in Japan since the system’s launch in March 2006, but with the exception of a limited release in Australia, that system color has not left the country.

“Nintendo DS is both the most affordable and the most popular video game system in this generation,” says Nintendo of America’s EVP of Sales and Marketing Cammie Dunaway. “These limited-edition bundles make great gifts for first-time Nintendo DS players and collectors alike.”

POSTED: 05.52AM PST, 11/25/08 – Eric Caoili