How Nintendo had on the world and won
The latest version of Nintendo handheld console has reached the stores in the UK and Europe. But it must one.As you buy for the first time in The Times in February, new Nintendo DSi handheld console launched in the UK and Europe on Friday, April 3. The new console based on the success DS brand, adding a number of multimedia features.
For now, the DSi is available in black or white. The white is bright and smooth to the touch, black mate is slightly more difficult, making it more pleasant touch.
Current owners of the DS Lite can be thrown for a moment the changes in volume and power buttons, but otherwise the DSi is a business pretty much as usual. So should you buy one? Here are ten facts that can help influence their decision.
1. The DSi is the third revision of the DS, the biggest selling console games already, with global sales of over $ 100 million, 9 million of them in the UK.
2. Although it seems very similar to the current DS Lite, the DSi is a bigger jump than the original pieces DS for DS Lite. The new design is sleeker, slightly larger screens and a faster processor, and is packed with new features.
3. New functional one: the DSi has its own built-in operating system, the Wii console model. The operating system is stored in the built-in memory DSi. One of the practical upshots for this is that games are "hot swappable, which means that no longer have to power cycle the console when changing game cartridges.
4. New function two: the DSi comes with two low-resolution cameras, one inside and one out. The cameras are complemented by an integrated application that allows you to distort the photos you take to achieve a humorous effect. Can also be used for video-chat.
5. Three new feature: the DSi comes with a card slot SD, where they can be photos, music and digital media storage. Do not get too excited by the music playback. The DSi will only play AAC files, not the MP3 popular. Why? Read our interview with the head of Nintendo in the United Kingdom to find out.
6. New feature four: if you want to play your old Game Boy Advance games, forget it. Since there is no slot in the front. This is also bad news for fans of Guitar Hero, which uses the slot of your pitch.
7. New function of five: Store DSiWare, inspired by the Wii Shop, downloadable games are offered in exchange for points of Nintendo. A web browser will be offered free.
8. Six New functionality: improved Internet connectivity means that the DSi firmware can be updated by Nintendo. This is bad news for pirates games, which are believed to have cost the company millions in lost revenue by making DS games for download on the cards as the notorious R4. The DSi will not recognize a R4 card.
9. In his native Japan, the DSi will sell for about 20,000 yen. A year ago, when the pound was worth 200 yen, this would suggested a price of 100 pounds in the UK. Now the pound is worth 139 yen, which has beaten the UK price to £ 149. Ouch.
10. Nintendo has chosen to launch a quiet for DSi, perhaps in recognition of the fact that there still exists only DSi games and the store is ill-equipped DSiWare. However, companies report before the console commands to ten times the level of the DS Lite.
Four years ago, many observers thought that Nintendo was dead and buried. Then the company staged a remarkable comeback with its DS and Wii consoles.
It's almost like the script of a video game. The one-time champion, shot by a new powerful rival finally rediscovered their strength and stage a stunning comeback.
But that is exactly what has happened to Nintendo over the past three years. Having helped create the video game industry in the 1980s, the company name was synonymous with the games – but that was little consolation when he spent ten years on the margins of the industry, overwhelmingly passed by the Sony PlayStation.
Once, Nintendo was firmly command console in the home and handheld devices – but lost to the PlayStation home console category, which allows Sony to press their advantage in the sector handheld. When Sony announced the PlayStation Portable in 2003, the price of Nintendo itself immediately collapsed, analysts and shareholders alike feared that the ship finally sinks.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is unclear how seriously underestimated the business world of Nintendo. Today, his most recent handheld console, the DS is about to sell 100 million units – twice as much as Sony PSP. In the console market at home, too, Nintendo has gone to his head. The Wii is approaching 50 million units sold, while rivals Sony and Microsoft struggle to reach the milestone of 30 million euros.
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Both DS and Wii have achieved something that the video game industry has talked about longing for years – real crossover in the mass market. Nintendo consoles have not been successful selling children and men in their twenties and thirties. Instead, have carved a new market – young, middle-aged women, retirees, businesspeople and everything in between.
The number of people who play video games has skyrocketed in recent years as people who have no interest in shooting aliens or find cars crashing the breadth of new experiences and possibilities that the Wii and DS have been introduced.
It would be easy to characterize this success as a fluke. No doubt Nintendo covered their backs; president Satoru Iwata told me in 2005 that the development and launch of the Wii would cost only 10 percent of reserves in cash from the company. Unlike Sony or Microsoft, for whom the failure of a console release would be catastrophic, Iwata was not prepared to "betting shirt "on the Wii or the DS – if not, the company simply return to the drawing board.
In some markets, like Japan, the DS has probably reached a peak. The DSi, far from being revolutionary, it's just Nintendo reinforce its position in the market. But despite this, the most exciting times for the console to come. The growth of the game is strong enough that even a deep recession that will erect – and huge markets like India and China remain untapped. With costs components for the DS already low and declining, emerging markets will soon become attractive – giving Nintendo billion more consumers to repeat the miracle game.
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