I just got finished reading Kotaku’s rather exhaustive list of the new iPhone games set to drop with the release of App Store, and I was left with one undeniable conclusion: Nintendo needs to update, upgrade or plain redesign the Nintendo DS, and soon.
First and foremost, the accelerometer is as revolutionary for the iPhone and mobile gaming as the Wiimote was for the Wii and consoles. Simple puzzle games like Trism, which was inspired by mobile phones staples like Bejewled, shows how powerful platform the iPhone will become. Just watch the video below, and you’ll see how Trism transforms a simple puzzler like Bejeweled into an entirely new game that’s just as simple and approachable as the original.
Next there’s games we’ve already heard about, like Super Monkey Ball, that have been around for some time, but not on a platform like the iPhone. This title once again leverages the accelerometer (I’m sensing a theme developing here, aren’t you?), and couples it with a $10 bare bones price tag (some people might argue that’s what Monkey Ball should have cost in the first place). Oh, and the graphics aren’t that bad, either. As Blake would say, they’re good enough, especially for a short burst on the subway, and I’d agree.
At $6, 3D touch-based pinball simulator Zen Pinball Rollercoaster is apparently another steal, with Kotaku saying, This single-table pinball sim is amazing. The amount of sound, action and graphics they managed to pack into Zen Pinball simply blows me away.” Finally, Motion X Poker ($5) is mind-numbingly simple, but to see it in action is amazing. Using real physics that simulate dice, the software has you shake the iPhone to “roll the dice” around the screen. It’s simple, but you really have to see in action for yourself.
Now, I’m not saying the App Store will blow Nintendo’s crown jewel away, but the foundation is definitely there. Accelerometers are nothing new, in any area of tech, but sometimes simply having the tech in your hardware isn’t enough. Case in point, what the Wii has done to console gaming using off-the-shelf parts. I see the same dynamic happening with the iPhone. Accerometer+mobile phone !=success 100% of the time, but if you pair it up with, say, an incredibly easy-to-use app delivery system (that pays its developers a 70% cut!), well, you might have a serious contender for the first time ever. Who knows, with 1/3 of all App Store software being given away for $0, the next great mobile game could very well be freeware.
Nintendo has plenty of bank right now with the DS, and it’s not even close to doomsday scenario time, regardless of what some lame-brained analyst says tomorrow or at E3. That said, I think this is the perfect opportunity for Nintendo to take a page from its own book and disrupt the handheld market, just like it did in 2004/2005 with the DS Phat. In effect, Nintendo will need to disrupt its own market, just as many subscribers to the Blue Ocean strategy have predicted will happen, eventually, with the Wii.
At E3 or sometime soon, Nintendo needs to update the DS with new hardware. An add-on simply wouldn’t do, because the Wii Fit Balance Board aside, peripherals never achieve anything close to 100% penetration with the installed user base.
A final point is price. I realize it’s a 2-year contract subsidy that’s doing it, but nevertheless that $200 price point is going to convert a lot of people to the House that Steve Jobs (and the Woz) built. And since App Store is so tightly integrated with iTunes, they’re going to have an incredibly easy time finding those apps, seeing their low price points, and downloading them. Nintendo has no comparable system, but it does have clout as the most popular video game—no, make that interactive entertainment—company in the world. They could easily combine the sizable clout they have with third parties on the DS with some new hardware variations and stay safe and sound during this iPhone storm. Multitouch? Widescreen? Motion controls? Stronger online presence? We’ll see if they do, or not.
I’ll leave you with Rolando, which is what would have happened if Kirby Canvas Curse and Loco Roco made it. Agree or disagree with me in the comments, won’t you?
PS – I still think they should call it “Game Boy.”
That last game looks insanely awsome!!!
$200 plus a 2 year contract? No thanks.
There’s no way that the iPhone will be big enough to contend with the DS. An exclusive service carrier doesn’t exactly have mass appeal. Nintendo doesn’t need to change anything about their DS strategy. Not that I don’t want them to, or expect them to at some point.
I agree with Jack on this one: I used to say also that Nintendo doesn’t need to do anything with their handheld strategy, and would tell people “if you can’t tell what the DS is missing, then you don’t need a new version of the DS!”
Well, these videos are certainly showing us what the DS could be missing…
But the price point of this new technology is still too high! Bet on Nintendo finding a good use of the accelerometer in a year or two…
I think Jack’s pretty accurate. But like other have said, the price point of the iPhone is going to be a big barrier for Apple to overcome.
BUT, the target audience of the iPhone, yuppies and such, will look at this as a boon. Those are people that might have bought DS systems if their target games had come out only on the Nintendo platform. So I see this as potentially cutting in on future market share expansion.
In any case, yeah, it could be time for Nintendo to pull their next hardware iteration they’ve been sitting on.
The I Phone games look terrible though.
Great article. Nintendo can read their own tea leaves too, so you can be sure the wheels are already in motion. This is definitely happening, and maybe sooner than we all imagine. Apple has opened with a surprise one-two punch here, throwing motion controls and a download store out there all of a sudden. These are both things Nintendo has waiting in the wings, but Apple has led the way here, especially with multi-touch. Nintendo absolutely, imperatively needs to find a way to do that on their own portable without infringing on Apple’s patents.
I think that Nintendo may win this round too, but they had better be paying damn close attention to what Apple’s up to here. They will have the advantage of mass-market pricing, quality games, and great game developers. They’ll introduce their new handheld at a price no higher than $150, and they’ll have some first rate software ready at launch. Apple, for its part, has thrown a monkeywrench in the works with the App Store, opening the gates to anyone at any price. This potentially hits Nintendo hard in its comfort zone, the traditional $30 game pricing. That’s where I think they may be slowest to react. If they are paying attention, the inevitable DS Store will have to have the goods to strike back. Anyway, this will be a fight worth watching.
First blood goes to Apple. Let the games begin.
This is just like when the PSP was released and everybody thought it was the end of Nintendo handhelds. The iPhone has a few things (accelerometer and large widescreen) going for it, but that doesn’t make it a superior product in the long run. Let’s start with battery life, I bet it’ll just as short as on my iPod Touch when watching movies.
And then there is the lack of traditionel controller. The Iphone has one button and since not every game is suited for touchcontrol – like Nintendo realised a long time ago and thus kept the buttons on the DS – I don’t belive Nintendo needs to worry at all.
As an iPhone owner and proud Apple enthusiast, I have to be honest…the idea of gaming on my iPhone doesn’t excite me at all.
Some of the games seem nice, to be sure. But what really excites me about the App Store are the productivity applications. These are what really will set the iPhone apart from other smart phone competitors; no other phones can claim to have desktop-quality applications on such a sleek, simple, desktop-like interface.
Plus, my iPhone is very much a productive gadget. The space I have on my iPhone will be filled by productivity applications, as well as movies and music for flights and waits. Space will be a major issue, me thinks, for iPhone users who want to download a lot of games.
Apple won’t even be a contender to Nintendo, in my opinion. But I do think Nintendo should adopt some iPhone technologies for the next DS, otherwise they will look very dated.
What a fantastic read, this dicussion over the iPhone generates significant interest for me as it appears to be working in favour of developers. Supposively it is super easy to develop for AND Apple are being generous on providing companies with solid returns. This looks like the merging of mobile phone and portable gaming.
I think that Nintendo have a lot to look out for, while the DS is undoubtedly a success the PSP has sucked up a significant portion (about a 1/3) of the handheld market) and the iPhone appears to be tapping into another type of consumer again. All the best to Apple may the best innovator win.
iPhone has at least four things going against it’s ability to be dominant in the games space:
1. No buttons at all. Think about how many DS games absolutely depend on tactile buttons
2. Stylus – there’s a BIG difference between “touch” and “stylus” – your finger be in the way! Fingers block too much of the game screen.
3. Apple doesn’t give a crap about games and they never have. They pulled funding from the Games pavillion at Macworld at the last minute last year – it’s not a priority for them.
4. Most parents will not want their children playing games on their expensive-to-replace-and-uninsured iPhone, and kids will not be getting their own.
Apple doesn’t have Mario, Link, Samus, Wario or any of the other amazing IP’s that Nintendo owns. The DS sold particularly well because Nintendo has capitalized with killer apps utilizing these great IPs. Name one really great app that EVERYBODY had to have for the PSP? With the DS, there is Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Metroid Prime Hunters, Nintendogs and even The New Super Mario Bros. …just to name a few. All of these games have such rich and diverse game play that they could have easily been released on a full console and sold just as well.
The iPhone has a narrow market, with a slew of games aimed at short periods of gaming. It’s difficult to make a call and play a game at the same time… Plus, knowing Apple, one third of the units will break because of quality control issues and the other third will break because the iPhone slipped out of the user’s hands and the front of the unit is all touch screen. I see Apple’s iPhone as being marketed toward a very focused group of people where the Nintendo DS has much wider appeal and accessibility. Timing is also a critical issue. Most people won’t buyout their existing carrier contracts, just to buy an iPhone and the expensive monthly contract that it comes with. It is my belief that the people who will use the iPhone’s gaming feature weren’t really customers of Nintendo’s anyhow.
I have an Iphone and a DS. In 5 years or so, I probably won’t need a DS b/c the iphone games will be good enough for on the go gaming.
That said, the DS will certainly loose market share to the 18 and up crowd, but will continue a strong hold w/ the 18 and under crowd.
none of that will hurt the DS at all.
practical handhelds have features the iPhone doesnt have.
iPhone doesnt have a competitive battery life, price, controls (that arent touch screen, and wheres the stylus holster? your thumb does not properly replace it in most instances).
It also doesnt have nintendo behind it pushing it forward with software that can truly sell a system.
the iPhone is also too worried about being all things to all people. it is a failing of almost any device in history. PSP is seeing that now, and it isnt even trying to be as much as the iPhone is.
PSP is selling great as a media/pirating device, but most software is a failure.
It looks like the iPhone has a chance to sell software to people who wants just minutes of play, but its variety of software will be rather small and inconsequencial to the library and line-up of the DS.
Been rocking itouch.phone games for a while (jailbroken) and i can say they are good for short periods of time but its not at all like the DS where you can play for hours.
The battery dies really fast. 3-4 Hours since you are using the screen and using the touch and accelerometer continuously.
Ipod games are meant for a quick go while you wait for your lunch or in the bus.
What this brings me to is that in no way the iphone/touch will compete with the DS but it will hopefully affect the new handheld with some ideas like accelerometer, detecting 2+ touch spots etc…
Well, the big thing is that, iphone is sleek and got the power to support those features and functions for that kind of game that Nintendo has on the WII but NOT on the DS. That is the problem right there. It’s foreshadowing possible events that may or may not hurt Nintedo’s innovation for complete interaction which they have now enabled us with all that pin-point accuracy, which is totaly awsome =3. Yes Nintedo truly needs a new portable platfrom and if you ask me, THEY NEED IT NOW!! I mean…honestly, I haven’t touched my DS in over 4 months and that is NOT a good sign. Even my N64 gets more attention than that, and i have Armorines for the 64 (sequel game i think is needed). The ds lite looks slick…but that’s all. But again, who came up with this level of interactivity? Nintedo did.
@ rith
there’s a ton of great ds games out there. that’s what you need.
The iPhone is no more a threat to the DS than the NGage was to the GBA.
@ ady.
thats a little to low
lets say
its maybe half the threat the PSP was to the DS
maybe thats even a little bit too much?