"I actually think that one of the biggest risks today in our industry are these inexpensive games that are candidly disposable from a consumer standpoint," he insisted.
"I actually thinks some of those games are overpriced at one or two dollars but that's a whole different story," he joked.
I liked this particular comment
"What this means is that at Nintendo we can no longer get away with charging 25 notes for some maths puzzles and a bit of Sudoku. The proliferation of inexpensive, quality, smartphone games has educated consumers and shown them what poor value our boxed content actually offers most of the time. Rather than trying to understand this change in market conditions and adapt we have decided that if we don't look at the monster it will go away." -- Reggie didn't say earlier.
The way cellphones are progressing, I think eventually it will become THE HANDHELD.
Not to mention the convenience of always having that portable Game in your pocket.
"Oh crap I forgot the PSP, thats okay got the Cell with me ..................."
EDITORIAL
Any portable is a great platform for the short diversion games. Great that current phones and portables have the power to run intensely immersive games and movies, but for me the movie and intense game more enjoyable to watch and play on a HDTV. The cell phone is taking a chunk of gaming market. Cell phone is always conveniently with you ready to game anytime. Direction pad and fire buttons is the main wall that keeps the portables in competition.
I agree with Reggie. Cell phone games are small, simple, short games that don't cost much to develop or distribute. Traditional big budget physical games for platforms such as the 3DS and Wii are the exact opposite. They are worth the $40 to $60 price tag when you take everything into consideration.
The problem with these cheap little cell phone games is they are making some people think that $2 is the standard price for video games. For some of the games, even though they are digital downloads, $2 may be much less than they should be worth. For many others, they aren't even worth $1 because they are shit, especially compared to the kind of games that Nintendo makes.
So what may end up happening, if it hasn't already, is a negative effect for hardcore gamers. If customers are no longer willing to spend $40+ on video games, developers could be forced to dumb down their games to keep development costs low. Also, they will be discouraged from releasing games on physical media and selling them in retail stores, since that raises the price considerably.
After witnessing several dev houses sinking thanks to the incredible demand from "hardcore gamers" for original and creative franchises (Read: lack of), I'd rather developers reform their ways than get Generic Annual Rehash X that's guaranteed to top the charts.
I think comparing app games to big boxed games is like comparing youtube videos to movies.
There will be many many videos that will be better than most movies (cause as with any creative industry 95% of what is being made sucks), but at the same time that is because there are 20.000 to 1 youtube videos compared to movies, and yet a youtube video just can't provide you the same enjoyment a movie would.
So imagine if youtube videos became the norm. If everyone made 10 minute tops movies, using an amateur camera in his basement. We would still get enjoyment out of it, but I hardly think that they'd have the same impact as movies.
Don't worry reggie. "Normal" games aren't going anywhere. You just have to reinvent yourselves. How about offering less stages for less money? Personally I'd hate that, but most people don't seem to mind.
BoneSnapDeez wrote:The success of a console is determined by how much I enjoy it.
Say what you want about Brain Age but it's production values are very high and in par with any other Nintendo title. Releasing that game was also a risky move on Nintendo's part and retailers were afraid to carry i, thinking it would fail. It's easy to copy it now.
Reducing the price means reducing the budget and reducing the budget WILL lower the quality. It would also force companies to reach to a broader audience to make the same amount of money so all we get is a blander, more generic product.
It's nothing new. Have you seen animation? Why spend a fortune restoring old cartoons when you can put more Scooby Doo in the shelves?
Anyways, it won't have a big impact. The comparison ZeroAX made with movies and youtube seems appropiate.
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ZeroAX wrote:I think comparing app games to big boxed games is like comparing youtube videos to movies.
There will be many many videos that will be better than most movies (cause as with any creative industry 95% of what is being made sucks), but at the same time that is because there are 20.000 to 1 youtube videos compared to movies, and yet a youtube video just can't provide you the same enjoyment a movie would.
So imagine if youtube videos became the norm. If everyone made 10 minute tops movies, using an amateur camera in his basement. We would still get enjoyment out of it, but I hardly think that they'd have the same impact as movies.
Don't worry reggie. "Normal" games aren't going anywhere. You just have to reinvent yourselves. How about offering less stages for less money? Personally I'd hate that, but most people don't seem to mind.
Pretty much covered what I was going to say. They're two different markets. I like bite sized games and I like big epic games and will continue to buy both.
Of all people Nintendo should understand this since they carved out a bit of a niche for themselves underneath Sony and Microsoft where the less "hardcore" crowd is welcome. I suppose he's afraid that the smart phone apps are going to steal that market away from them. Perhaps Nintendo is having concerns about how this next handheld generation is going to go now that the phones have become serious players in the game market.
I agree; to make it in this new market of cheap, downloadable games, Nintendo and Sony need to make a clearer distinction between the two to the mainstream market, so they can continue to release physical games, but it is also important to embrace this new market of download-only games on portables, so they won't be left out. Just make sure that consumers know the difference.
To take an uncharacteristically optimistic view of this issue, maybe this will encourage Nintendo et al. not to compete in the mini-game market. If there's no money in that market, they should go where the money is.. hardcore gamers ready to shovel over cash for lengthy and complex games.
We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain!
