Free 3G Wireless For Nintendo's Next Handheld? 110
itwbennett writes "'Nintendo is feeling the sting of competition from the iPhone,' writes Peter Smith in a recent post. 'At least, that's the feeling one gets when reading Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's thoughts on the future of Nintendo handhelds. According to a Financial Times piece, Iwata suggests the next Nintendo handheld (and to be clear, he isn't talking about the big screen DS launching in Japan next month) might include free 3G wireless, much like the Amazon Kindle does. The challenge is to offer the immediacy of downloading an inexpensive new game, anywhere, anytime, without forcing the user into some kind of monthly data plan.' From the FT piece: 'Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month [in mobile phone subscriptions] can be iPhone customers. That doesn't fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products,' Mr Iwata said."
Re:Yet another revolution (Score:4, Insightful)
Price Points (Score:4, Insightful)
The challenge is to offer the immediacy of downloading an inexpensive new game, anywhere, anytime, without forcing the user into some kind of monthly data plan.
There won't be a monthly plan, because it was be bundled into the price upfront. I also wouldn't be surprised if the median owner rarely used their 3G connection, and were subsidizing the small minority who uses it. There's a problem when Nintendo's handheld is more expensive than their full console. Especially when a large part of the success for the Wii is attributed to it's low price point.
Re:Hack Frenzy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hack Frenzy (Score:3, Insightful)
Just like there was such a flurry of hacks to get cheap access thorough the Peek? Granted, I don't think it's 3G and it _is_ still $15 a month, but it's also incredibly cheap (both initially and per month). And like that frenzy of hacks for the Amazon Kindle? I mean that thing has free 3G....
Besides, all they'll have to do is put in some kind of bandwidth limit...or simply limit the connection to specific sites. I mean it's being used to download games, there's no reason not to lock it in to only be allowed data to the nintendo store.
Re:How does that work? (Score:2, Insightful)
Are you kidding? Bell, Rogers and Telus will be at each other's throats to offer the hottest new Nintendo product. They really don't care whether you pay for your data plan or if Nintendo does. Nintendo's habit of locking their devices down is also likely to appeal to these companies, since their goal is to collect monthly revenue without users doing anything on the network.
Re:Yet another revolution (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't know, I think until someone else does it first in the realm of gaming I'd say it still qualifies as innovative.
You don't say "Meh, automobiles aren't very innovative. They're really just a horse drawn carriage without the horse."
Re:Is 3G really the problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me that it's more the large number of developers, and the diversity of games/apps, that could be a bigger issue. Sure, immediacy is nice, but...if Nintendo keeps up the policy of charging multi-thousands of dollars for a dev kit, with a requirement that it _must_ be a business location (no home offices), I don't see 3G as being much help...
I disagree.
Nintendo has always produced entertainment devices. Sure, there have been a few productivity apps shoehorned into the GameBoy in the past... But the vast majority of their software is games. I don't see Nintendo selling a device that is primarily a PDA or GPS or phone anytime soon.
The iPhone is competing in the smartphone arena. Folks with smartphones are used to being able to buy random apps on-line and install them. Folks with smartphones are used to being able to buy small little utilities for a couple dollars, or download free programs.
Nintendo does not compete in that market. Nintendo is competing in the console/handheld market. Yes, there are homebrew games and mod communities... But, for the most part, the console/handheld market is all about fairly large publishers, development kits, DRM, and licensing.
I think what we're seeing here is kind of a convergence of forces...
Nintendo is seeing devices like the Kindle, and thinking we could do that. The GameBoy has enough processing power to run an ebook reader for sure... And the hardware is getting cheap enough that there's no reason you couldn't stick a 3G modem in there. Maybe it wouldn't be the primary use of the GameBoy, but they could maybe steal some sales.
Nintendo is seeing devices like the iPhone, which is not primarily a gaming device, but is being used for gaming. Folks will be sitting at the DMV or whatever, bored, and grab some random $2 game for the iPhone just to kill some time. Nintendo would like to get in on this market. Maybe most of their sales would still be cartridges sold at a store...but they could probably get some impulse sales.
But, I think, the biggest factor is that people are getting used to having always-on access to the Internet in some capacity.
Pretty much every cell phone these days is capable of Internet access. You don't even need to buy a smartphone anymore. And most cell phones can run some sort of games. People are used to being able to just push a couple buttons on their phone and get a ringtone or a game or some wallpaper.
Smartphones are offering application marketplaces on-line. No need to go to a store and buy a physical product. Just push a couple buttons and you've got your software delivered right to your phone, no matter where you are.
Folks are using DVRs to watch TV when and how they want it. Or they're watching TV on Hulu or something similar. Again, on-demand and pretty much wherever you are.
The idea that you have to go to a store and buy a physical item, even for a simple pile of minigames like Brain Age, is a bit outdated. Maybe it wouldn't make sense to download 5+ GB of data wirelessly... But we're not talking about a PS3 here - this is a GameBoy. I'd be surprised if the games are much bigger than 1 GB.
So, Nintendo is looking at this instant-gratification marketplace... Where people want to be able to get a new game just by pushing a couple buttons, wherever they are. They're seeing the iPhone steal some of their thunder not because it is a spectacular gaming platform, but just because it's got that instant-gratification marketplace. They're looking at the Kindle and thinking we could steal some of their thunder. And they're looking at the actual costs of putting that hardware into their next device and thinking why the hell not?
Sure, a more open marketplace would be nice... It'd be great if you could publish games for free on the GameBoy... It'd be nice if they didn't require so much just to get developer access... But I really don't think that's going to be as much of a hindranc
Re:Skeptical (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps I'm biased, since I love my DS, but I really don't see how the iPhone is hurting the DS in any way. My girlfriend owns both a DS and an iPhone and beyond the initial "Oh look at this cool game!" reaction, I've never seen her play a single game on the iPhone.
Are there really games on the iPhone that people would be willing to invest time on? Even with all the hype and articles about the issue, I really don't get the sense at all that the iPhone is in any way taking customers from Nintendo or Sony. Saying iPhone games are convenient is like saying regular cell phone brick games or tetris games are convenient - it doesn't change the fact that it'll drain your battery in an hour and fifteen minutes and isn't particularly engaging anyway.
There's no way an iPhone replicates "70-80%" of the functionality of a DS or PSP, they're two different things.
The way I see it, Nintendo isn't looking to gain back market share or anything - its sales definitely are not weak or faltering in any way, 115 million units compared to the PSP's 56 (or the iPhone's 21). Instead, they're probably just looking to expand their market more and more, and they may feel that downloading little or full-size games whenever the user wants may be the way to do it.
UNBundle the connection, then sell separately (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay, we need to get moving faster on wireless networking oversight. It's getting worse than the cable/dsl nightmare of crappy service and quality they provide. How about we unbundle these wireless connections from their devices and simply allow us to select the right one and drop in the appropriate chip? Someone put some pressure on the US market to standardize on something. then have them compete on price, speed, service, and support. Right now they compete with lock in and fancy stupid commercials.
And it's not "free". At the very least, it's included with the price of the device. And how does one exactly subsidize that on a single device? It's $30 a month for the iPhone data plan, that's $360 a year in fees. Are they going to tack on $360 to the price of the device? And how do they expect to do this in multiple countries? And in the US will anyone accept the hit their network is going to take? They saw the iPhone, they should be wary of the nintendo with 3G wireless.
There are too many questions here, and so many fail points. The best way to serve consumers is to UNBundle the wireless component so we can all make choices. I'd love to be able to do that on all the networks, and I'd sacrifice visual voicemail to do it.
If it follows the Kindle model. . . (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't have a Kindle, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the concept is, the Kindle isn't a 'general purpose' Internet device, like a smart phone - that is, I don't think you can really just browse the web, stream audio and video from youtube, hulu, or whatever. Basically, the data connection on the Kindle is special-purpose - for downloading Kindle eBooks/eZines/eNewspapers, which are a) relatively small, and b) the price of the 3G network bandwidth for the download is essentially bundled in the price of the content you purchase.
So, Amazon, I think, worked out a deal with carriers in different countries to pay for the cost of the downloads, by sharing the revenue generated by the content purchases with the network operators(granted, there is also some activity, like the user browsing the amazon kindle 'store', which doesn't directly generate revenue, but which is recovered by the user purchases).
In such a business model, the individual users are probably generating, collectively, much less bandwidth-use per device (on average) than your average smart-phone user, so the costs to the 3G network operator are relatively small. Any users who are using a lot more bandwidth than the average user are also paying a lot more for content than the average user, so the high-use users pay for themselves (as do the low-use users).
I could very easily see Nintendo working out such a deal with network operators if the only thing the online connectivity is used for is browsing the Nintendo store to find and purchase games/DLC, and then download the games after purchase. If, however, the Nintendo device allows web browsing and online play against/with other Nintendo users, then I have a harder time seeing that business model succeed (because the users, then, aren't necessarily paying indirectly for all the network bandwidth they use).
Re:DS and PSP have D-pad and buttons (Score:1, Insightful)
What is this $5/month plan you speak of?