But the 3-D handheld gaming device has gotten a boost from recent game releases, and the gaming giant hopes two more items will keep the hardware’s momentum going for the holiday season.

This Sunday, Nintendo will release Mario Kart 7 for 3DS. It’s the second game in the Mario franchise aimed at the portable device in the past two weeks. Retailing for $39.99, Mario Kart 7 includes new courses and kart abilities and supports the 3DS StreetPass feature, which allows users to wirelessly connect to other “Mii” characters as they pass each other on the street or are in the vicinity of each other.

The company also plans to release a pink version of the 3DS, bundled with one of its Nintendogs + Cats games. The pink 3DS will cost $169.99 in the U.S., the same price as the standard Nintendo 3DS system. Nintendo had previously said a pink version was aimed at girls (sigh, but they do like lots of other colors, too).

The Nintendo 3DS, the company’s first 3-D portable gaming handset, hit the U.S. in March, at a price of $249.99. The device has an autostereoscopic screen — which means glasses aren’t required to see the 3-D imagery — and a depth slider that adjusts the intensity of the 3-D.

Consumers were less than thrilled by the 3DS, with many citing vision problems and high game prices, forcing Nintendo to later reduce the price. The move resulted in a 260 percent sales jump, with Nintendo selling 235,000 units in August, ranking it the second-best-selling piece of gaming hardware in the U.S. that month.

The 3DS got another boost when Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D Land game became available Thanksgiving week, as part of a bundle with a red 3DS. Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said the game was the fastest-selling portable Mario game in Nintendo’s history, and that interest in the game drove hardware sales up 49 percent.

“We believe more and more that software drives hardware,” Fils-Aime said.

Fils-Aime said Nintendo continues to invest in 3-D technology in terms of content, but for now, consumers shouldn’t hold their breath for a next-generation 3DS.

“I wouldn’t expect a complete redesign of the hardware in the near-term,” he said.

In addition to the new pink model, Nintendo 3DS is available in the U.S. in blue, black and red. A white version of the device is sold in Japan, although Fils-Aime noted that Nintendo’s white handheld DS and DSi devices haven’t sold as well in the U.S. as other colors have.

According to NPD Group, Nintendo sold more than 620,000 hardware units in the U.S. in April. This includes more than 257,000 units in the Nintendo DS family, and only 194,000 Nintendo 3DS units. Nintendo also sold more than 172,000 Wii consoles.

Nintendo attributed the gap between the two handheld game units to the staying power of the original DS family–and avoided any implications that the 3DS was not selling well.

“With a rich library of games, Nintendo DS has something for everyone. The system’s staying power is exemplified by the recent launch of the Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version games,” Nintendo said. Those two games sold an impressive 2.8 million units or more combined during their first 60 days of availability.

After the 3DS went on sale March 27, Nintendo was eager to report that the glasses-free 3-D device broke sales records. However, the original DS still appears to be benefiting from having a deeper catalog of games available for sale. Additionally, sales may have been hurt by concerns of younger players viewing 3-D images over long periods of time, or complaints that 3-D images made people dizzy, or gave them headaches.

Overall, NPD Group said that the videogame industry saw very strong sales for hardware, software and accessories in April, compared to the year-ago period.

NPD’s Anita Frazier wrote that all three categories experienced double-digit dollar growth compared to April 2010, reversing a negative downward trend.

“Easter purchasing occurred in April this year as opposed to March last year,” Frazier wrote. “The Easter timing shift could explain about $60 million of the growth, but even accounting for that shift, sales of new physical product realized a notable increase versus last year.”

Hardware sales were strong across the board with the PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 platforms all seeing an increase in unit sales versus April last year. The Xbox 360 platform was the best-selling device of the month in terms of unit sales, followed by the Nintendo DS.

Software performed even better in April. It was the first month that new physical retail sales of content showed growth in both units and dollars since November of last year.

The Nintendo 3DS, which allows players to see 3-D images without special glasses, will go on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250.

Amazon is already claiming that the Nintendo 3DS was the biggest console launch ever on Amazon.com. It sold more units on January 19–the day it was announced–than any console had before, including the slimmed-down versions of the Xbox 360 last year and the PS3 the year before.

GameStop, which will open 800 of its stores worldwide at midnight on sales day, said pre-sales were strong. “Demand has been so strong that, literally, we are working every day with Nintendo to ensure that we have sufficient product. And they have been very good partners on this, and we fully expect to have sufficient product at launch; the demand is very strong,” said GameStop’s President Tony Bartel during the company’s earnings call yesterday, according to a SeekingAlpha transcript.

Nintendo expects to ship about four million 3DS units worldwide by the end of March, and said 1.5 million of those will likely be in Japan. The device went on sale in Europe today.

The original DS has been insanely popular over the years.

Nintendo has sold more than 47 million portable video game systems in the U.S. since the original model launched in November 2004. By its own measures, it says, that makes Nintendo DS the nation’s best-selling video game system of all time.

Still, it’s unclear whether the 3-D mechanism will draw a new audience, or whether it’s enough to encourage current users to upgrade.

In other words, can the 3DS repeat history? There’s a handful of reasons why this could be game over.

Nintendo warned that children under the age of six should not view the 3-D images due to health concerns, although optometrists have since largely dismissed the worries.

Another concern is price.

The device costs $250, which is $100 more than the original. The games are also $10 more expensive at $39 each.

Finally, there’s the competition.

The Nintendo products are attractive because they don’t require a monthly fee. Increasingly, however, smartphones are offering an equal gaming experience. Apple’s iPad and iPod touch also don’t have monthly fees, and those devices have thousands of games for much less than $39. If 3-D is important, two smartphones were unveiled this week at CTIA with 3-D capabilities–without glasses.

Katie Boehret of The Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital gave the device a mixed review, calling out its clunkiness and remarking that the images sometimes made her dizzy.

However, the device offers a lot more features than the old model. In May, it’s expected to get a software update that will enable downloadable games and add a Web browser.

On launch day, users will have a choice of dozens of game titles, including several created by Nintendo, such as Pilotwings Resort, Nintendogs + Cats: Golden Retriever & New Friends, and Steel Diver.

Typically, the launch of new hardware spurs a spike in game sales.

It’s Ubisoft’s intention to launch more 3DS titles than any other third-party video game publisher this week to ride that wave. It has four titles ready at launch, including Asphalt 3D, Combat of Giants, Dinosaurs 3D and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. In all, it has more than 15 games in development for the platform.

All of Ubisoft’s games at launch will be in 3-D; however, a toggle on the device allows you to convert the images to 2-D. The games also take advantage of other new features, such as the accelerometer, which in Asphalt 3D allows you to steer the car with motion control.

Ubisoft SVP of Sales and Marketing Tony Key said the goal is to be No. 1 on the platform. “The thing is going to be hot. Our initial prediction is that it will be hard to get your hands on one. It’s going to sell out. All kinds of people will be trying to buy one, ranging from the core gaming men to tweens to every gamer segment out there,” he said. “As fast as Nintendo can make them is as fast as they will be able to sell them.”

Both Amazon and GameStop are providing incentives for current DS owners to upgrade. They are offering $50 to $100 in trade-in credit on old gaming units, depending on the device.

Nintendo, which is based in Kyoto, Japan, has previously said that there’s been no apparent damage to its headquarters after the recent earthquake, and that business operations, including future product shipments, haven’t been affected.

As recently as January, safety warnings about the new handheld gaming device were dominating headlines after the company issued warnings that the 3-D screens shouldn’t be viewed by children six or younger because it may harm their vision.

Now, U.S. eye specialists are even welcoming the technology, saying it could help catch vision problems that are hard to detect.

“The 3DS could be a godsend for identifying kids under 6 who need vision therapy,” Dr. Michael Duenas, associate director for health sciences and policy for the American Optometric Association told the AP.

Nintendo has a lot riding on the new handheld gaming device since it is the only new hardware it has coming in the near term. The device has already launched in Japan, and will go on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250.

The clamshell device is similar to the original 3DS that has been a long-term hit among children. In the new version, it has two screens with the top one having the ability to display 3-D images without the need for special glasses. The 3-D images can be turned off with the flip of a switch. When on, they look somewhat like a hologram.

Many of the device’s capabilities are similar to features found on the iPhone and other smartphones.

For example, the new 3DS has an online store, called the eShop, where users will be able to download games. It also has three cameras and a built-in gyro, so the device can be tilted and turned to affect game play. It will also have location-based features, where users can elect to receive new content from Nintendo or other 3DS users as they travel around.

The device can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots, even when in sleep mode, to collect this content or to function as a pedometer, which counts a user’s steps.

Some features won’t be available at launch, but will be released later through a software update.

At one point, the warnings that Nintendo issued about concerns over children viewing 3-D images seemed like a major impediment for the device.

Now, it’s being viewed as a potential way to identify early signs in kids who may have a vision disorder such as amblyopia, or “lazy eye,” which can cause problems with reading.

In an interview with CNBC in January, Nintendo’s President and COO of North America Reggie Fils-Aime downplayed the concerns: “The fact that the younger consumers are not to view 3-D images is not a big deal for us, and you can manipulate the device to only have 2-D visuals shown, so it will cater to all consumers. The 2-D screen is dramatically better than our current DS.”

Last week, Amazon.com said preorders of the 3DS have been robust. It said the best-selling game titles are Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV, followed by Nintendo’s Pilotwings Resort and Sega’s Super Monkey Ball.

However, even with the upcoming launch on deck, the top handheld game releasing next week with the most preorders is not for the 3DS, but for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP). The game is Dissidia duodecim Final Fantasy by Square Enix.

Iwata, who presented the show’s only keynote, said he fears today’s emphasis on mobile and social is going to hurt the industry.

Later in the afternoon, critics said his statements only prove his ignorance and point to the company’s own weaknesses.

“Long-term, Nintendo is doomed,” said Michael Pachter, equity research analyst of Wedbush Securities. “He’s under full frontal assault by Apple.”

In the keynote, Iwata explained the games industry is no longer focused on building the highest quality experiences, but rather is narrowing in on free or very low cost titles.

“The majority of people here are creating games for social and mobile. I fear our business is dividing, and that threatens the employment for those of us who make games for a living,” he said.

Iwata also addressed Apple’s impact on the industry, but without every naming the iPhone and iPad-maker.

The lack of acknowledgment felt particularly strange given that his comments were being made at the exact same time that Steve Jobs was across the street, unveiling the iPad 2, which has all the hardware capabilities in place to become a serious gaming device.

The closest Iwata got to talking about Apple, and probably Facebook too, was when he said that “these platforms have no motivation to maintain the high value of video game software. For them content is something created by someone else.”

For emphasis, he added: “The value of games does not matter to them…The fact is, what we produce is value, and we should protect it.”

[A video of Iwata's entire speech can be viewed on Nintendo's web site.]

Iwata gave the impression that he was oblivious to the burgeoning mobile and social sectors around him, which despite being in their infancy, are generating significant revenues and attracting large audiences. Together, they both have the ability to define the future of gaming.

“He may be right, but then the 200 to 300 million people who play games on Facebook are wrong,” said Jeff Brown, the VP of corporate communication for Electronic Arts  ”Social gaming as a whole aggregates into a business that is undeniably big money.

“When it’s that big you are forced to pay attention,” he added.

Among the large publishers, EA’s ahead of the game when it comes to preparing for the day when consumers switch from paying $60 for an Xbox title to paying a few bucks or nothing at all for an iPhone or Facebook game. Yesterday, it furthered its commitment by expanding its third-party publishing platform into social and mobile through its acquisitions of Chillingo and Playfish.

So far, it’s paying off.

EA’s digital business was up 39 percent in 2010 and its on track to hit three-quarters of a billion in revenues this year.

Zynga, the undeniable leader on Facebook, also took offense to the statements.

Zynga’s Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds, who came from the traditional games business and was lead designer on the big hit Civilization II, was especially baffled by the comments about being able to make a living in social.

Last year, Zynga hired more than 800 people and today has more than 1,500 full-time employees in 13 offices, spanning six countries.

“I expected better from Nintendo. They are missing the point of what we are doing,” he said. “We are making games that everyone can play and socialize on while playing.”

What’s more, Zynga is doing a great job monetizing, he said.

Sources tell BoomTown’s Kara Swisher that it’s close to completing a funding round of $500 million, valuing the company at $10 billion –making it worth more than EA’s $6 billion market cap. In 2010, its revenues were rumored to total $850 million.

“We do it in a microtransaction way, and it’s free to play, but they’re wrong that they don’t make a lot of money,” Reynolds said.

The gaming industry has always been fraught by disruption.

In the past, the storyline has been about the consoles wars with Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all going head-to-head to be the gaming leader. Now, it’s about the platform wars with consoles vs. mobile and social.

How quickly do things change.

It was only a year ago at GDC that Zynga seemed to piss off everyone when accepting an award on behalf of Farmville for best new social/online game.

In a similar manner as Nintendo today, Bill Mooney, the general manager for Farmville at the time, used his acceptance speech to make the argument for why everyone should leave console gaming for social games. He even solicited resumes at the podium.

Mooney’s overtness was translated as lack of respect for the traditional games business, which is what seemed to bother people the most.

What’s different with today’s platform wars vs. yesterday’s console wars is that this time, it’s not about one beating another. It’s about expanding the market opportunity for gaming. Ultimately, if you give people a choice of platforms to play on, more people will play.

Reynolds said while Zynga has made huge gains since last year, it still hasn’t been fully recognized for its work.

“What we’ve done has permeated everywhere, but we don’t have the recognition from the old guard. The young guys — they get it, but the forces of the industry are living in the past. The longer it takes them to realize that, the more it will cost them to buy your way back in.”

As for whether Nintendo is wrong or right, and whether it will have to pay heavily down the road to get back in, we’ll have to wait and see.

The rest of Iwata’s hour-long keynote was spent promoting its upcoming 3DS launch at the end of the month.

Today, Nintendo’s North American President Reggie Fils-Aime announced a partnership with Netflix to offer streaming video.

It also formed a partnership with AT&T to give internet access to the handheld gaming devices wherever it operates WiFi hotspots.

Webush’s Pachter said despite the pressure from Apple, he believes the 3DS is novel and has the ability to sell tens of millions of units, but it will face competition from the iPod and iPhone, which have similar games and much lower prices.

EA’s Brown also wouldn’t count them out. “The instant you stop thinking they are relevant, they turn the industry upside down.”

On the home console side of the business, there’s Microsoft and Sony with new motion-detection systems similar to the Wii. On the Japanese game maker’s popular handheld side of the business, there’s Sony’s new offering–announced today–and dozens of smartphone makers, from Apple to HTC.

All of that added up to fewer sales of Nintendo’s Wii and DS platforms in the third quarter, and there’s not much relief in sight.

Nintendo cut its sales forecast for the Wii console by 1.5 million units to 16 million for the year. It also lowered its DS sales forecast by 1 million to 17.5 million units (but raised it to 22.5 million units, including the sales of the upcoming release of its new handheld, which will offer a 3-D experience that doesn’t require glasses).

Today, Nintendo reported net sales for the nine-month period ended Dec. 31 of 807.9 billion yen ($9.8 billion), down from 1.18 trillion a year ago. Net income shrank to 49.6 billion ($603 million) from 192.6 billion in 2009.

For the same period in 2010, Nintendo said it sold 15.7 million DS units, with about half of those sold in the U.S. That’s down from 23.4 million in 2009. The company also said it sold 13.7 million Wii units worldwide in 2010, fewer than the 17 million sold in 2009.

Its financial forecast remains unchanged from revised figures released in September.

The company said in its earnings release that “Nintendo continues to pursue its basic strategy of ‘Gaming Population Expansion’ by offering compelling products that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age, gender, or gaming experience.”

But it seems that is also the goal of others, like Microsoft, which has been able to rapidly expand the audience for the Xbox by releasing the hands-free Kinect accessory. It sold eight million in its first 60 days on market. Sony has also released the Move, and today announced a next-generation handheld gaming system that beats Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS at least on one front–it comes with wireless 3G.

Photo Credit: Clevercupcakes

The company said the portable DS handheld, which originally came out in November 2004, has sold an accumulated 47 million devices to become the U.S.’s best-selling videogame system of all time.

Additionally, the Wii sold more than seven million game consoles in 2010, marking the third consecutive year of such volumes–a feat Nintendo says has never been accomplished in the history of game systems.

The figures are impressive for the game company, which has always focused on a family-friendly niche, with lovable characters bouncing around in imaginary worlds, rather than on complex multiplayer games focused on violence and intense graphics.

But whether it will be enough to sustain the company against rivals such as the Xbox is unclear.

The Xbox has been the best-selling console for the past few months, a position that was supercharged in November when Microsoft released the Kinect, which allows users to play hands-free, similarly to how the Wii operates but taken to the next level.

Sales of the Kinect accessories have been strong, and have helped expand Microsoft’s audience beyond the hard-core gamer.

Nintendo is not expected to release a new console in the short term, and critics are unclear about the 3DS, which is the new portable handheld coming that boosts 3-D images without the need for glasses.

Nintendo said it’s coming to the U.S. in March, and more details will be available soon. Nintendo is attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week for the first time in 16 years, but it’s not expected to make big news at the show.

But it’s unclear whether the 3DS can compete as a standalone gaming device as other multipurpose devices–like Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as other smartphones–gain market share.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime begs to differ when forecasting the trends of the future: “When we look ahead to 2011, we see new portable technology and more great Wii games that need to be seen to be believed.”

If he does say so himself.

For the six months to September 30, the Japanese gaming giant reported a $24.7 million loss as sales of hardware and software slipped. Nintendo sold 6.69 million DS units during the half, down significantly from the 11.7 million it sold during the same period last year. And it sold fewer Wiis as well–4.97 million, down from the 5.75 million it shipped last year. On the software side, things were equally dismal. DS software sales declined to 54.84 million units from 71.15 million units in 2009; Wii software sales fell to 65.21 million units from 76.21 million units in the same period a year earlier.

The beginnings of an ugly trend for Nintendo, which is fast losing momentum in a motion-enhanced gaming market in which its rivals are gaining it. With Sony’s PlayStation Move motion controller already at market and Microsoft’s Kinect for XBox 360 (Project Natal) headed there next month, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Wii–now about four years old–needs a full-on refresh.

And it appears Apple already is. According to some statistics trotted out at its annual September music event, Apple’s developed quite a hold on the portable gaming market. The company claims a 50 percent share of the portable gaming market and says the iPod touch is the No. 1 mobile gaming device worldwide, outselling the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined. And that hold will only strengthen with the recent launch of Apple’s Game Center–a new interactive gaming service included in iPhone OS 4–and the proliferation of cheap and increasingly more sophisticated games for the platform (seen Epic Citadel, yet?).

It’s said that Nintendo views Apple as the “enemy of the future.” And it clearly is that. But it’s also very much an enemy of the present and the recent past as well. As Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing, said over a year ago: “People are starting to see what a great gaming device [the iPod touch is]. When you think about the companies that came before us…when you played those other systems, they seemed so cool, but now when you look at them, they don’t stack up against the iPod touch….No Multi-Touch user experience, Games are expensive, No App Store, No iPod, Expensive Games and uncomfortable retail buying experiences.”

Both Nintendo and Sony made 3-D a central element of their presentations at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo on Tuesday, with Nintendo taking the wraps off its 3DS handheld, an upgrade to its popular DS portable game machine.

Sony showed off new 3-D games including the latest versions of blockbuster franchises such as car racing game “Gran Turismo” and shooting game “Killzone.”

The 3-D products come as the videogame industry has struggled with continued slow growth despite an improving economy.

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April was another lousy month for the videogame industry. With overall revenue down 26 percent and hardware down 37 percent, it was the worst monthly year-over-year sales decline since last July, according to research house The NPD Group. It was also the 10th time in the last 13 months that sales have fallen year-over-year.

• Nintendo sold 277,2000 Wiis, down from 557,500 in March and 340,000 a year ago. The company sold 440,800 Nintendo DS’s, down from 700,800 in March and 1.04 million a year ago.
• Microsoft sold 185,400 Xbox 360s, down from 338,400 in March, but up from 175,000 a year ago.
• Sony sold 180,800 PlayStation 3s, down from 313,900 in March, but up from 127,000 a year ago. And it sold 65,500 PSPs, down from 119,900 in March and 116,000 a year ago.

What’s driving the drops? Blame the portable gaming industry, which contributed more than its fair share to the industry decline, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“The portable business across hardware, software and accessories accounted for 25 percent of total industry dollar sales in April,” Frazier explained. “But declines in portable sales compared to April ’09 accounted for 61 percent of the total industry decrease.”

That’s just abysmal, even if April is traditionally the slowest month of the year for videogame sales. Consider this: At 440,800, sales of the Nintendo DS tanked by more than 50 percent from more than one million last April.

So what’s going on? Perhaps consumers are postponing new portable game system purchases in anticipation of Nintendo’s new 3DS. Or perhaps they’re finding that their smartphones make fine gaming devices.

It’s not yet clear. But what is clear, and painfully so, is that the hardware refresh promised by Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT), which are adding new motion technology to their players, and Nintendo, which is debuting the 3-D version of its DS handheld, can’t come soon enough.

This morning, the videogame company reported its first full-year drop in revenue in six years, one in which revenue fell 22 percent to 1.43 trillion yen and operating profit dropped 36 percent to 356.57 billion yen.

Driving the declines: Wii sales that were down 21 percent year-over-year to 20.53 million. With global sales of the console expected to fall again this fiscal year–to 18 million units–the company is in desperate need of something to revive them.

Though it still leads in this generation of gaming hardware, Nintendo is struggling to maintain its momentum. With rivals like Microsoft (MSFT) working on Project Natal and other innovations, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Wii, now about four years old, needs a full-on refresh and not just new peripherals like the silly vitality sensor the company showed off last year.

With Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and iPad making big inroads in portable gaming, the new 3-D version of the DS Nintendo is planning can’t come to market soon enough, though the company’s executives insist it’s holding its own.

Said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime: “We have not seen any impact on our DS business [from the iPad]. In the first three months, we’ve set two new sales records for the Nintendo DS. We think that through April, we’ll have the best four-month time period to kick off a new calendar year that we’ve ever had with the device. So we’re certainly seeing momentum, they’re seeing momentum–I think two products can succeed at the same time.”

The iPod Touch offers the best options for young kids.

I’m a big fan of old-fashioned analog activities—books and crayons—but they’re not enough when you’re cooped up for six hours on a plane. In advance of a cross-country flight on Wednesday, my two kids and I spent several days trying out the most versatile and convenient gadget—offering movies, games and other electronic media—for keeping us entertained.

We looked at Apple’s iPod Touch, a Sony (SNE) PSPgo and a Nintendo DSi. Sony and Nintendo have updated their PlayStation Portable and DS game players with features aimed at going beyond traditional gaming. Apple (AAPL) is been promoting the iPod touch’s game capabilities.

Nintendo has done a lot to push the boundaries of gaming, with the Wii and other products. But the $169.99 DSi isn’t the entertainment Swiss army knife the iPod Touch and PSPgo are. It doesn’t play movies, for example—a big minus for my 2-year-old son, who is too young to be patient with most games.

It’s still a fun game-player, though, with popular titles for young kids, including two that are big with my 6-year-old daughter: the Nintendogs virtual pet and Pokemon adventure games, which run about $30 a title. One big change Nintendo made to the DSi is the addition of two cameras that are used in fun games, like the ones that put a player’s photo alongside other characters. One simple camera application lets you distort and doodle on images.

Nintendo and Sony also have followed the lead of the App Store—Apple’s online clearinghouse for iPhone and iPod Touch software—by letting users download software directly to the DSi and PSPgo over a Wi-Fi connection. It is more convenient than keeping track of a lot of external game cartridges and discs. Compared with the more than 100,000 titles in the App Store, however, Nintendo’s DSi Shop is sparsely stocked. It had only two free applications and about 90 titles, mostly costing $2 to $8.

One free DSi titles, Flipnote Studio, was a huge hit with my 6-year-old. It let her create an electronic version of an old-fashioned flip book, where you animate sketches by flipping pages. The DSi has only 256 megabytes of built-in storage, good for about a dozen games, though users can expand that with a storage card.

With the $249.99 PSPgo, Sony got rid of the old proprietary disc format for movies and games used in older PSP models, replacing it with 16 gigabytes of built-in flash storage onto which users can download games, movies and other content. The change allowed Sony to make a sleeker device with controls that slide away under its crisp color display.

The iPod Touch is still slimmer and easier to tuck into a pocket. A model with eight gigabytes sells for $199, while one with 32 gigabytes sells for $299.

The PSPgo’s display is slightly wider than that on the iPod Touch, but isn’t touch-sensitive. Still, the PSPgo and iPod Touch are fine for watching movies. They’re more convenient on airplanes than fumbling with a laptop and DVDs. And users can wirelessly download movies and games onto the PSPgo from Sony’s online PlayStation Store. I found it faster, though, to do the transaction on my PC over a wired Internet connection, and load the material onto the PSPgo over a USB cable with Sony’s version of Apple’s iTunes application, called Media Go. Media Go runs only on Windows.

Prices for movies on the iTunes and PlayStation Stores were mostly the same at $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for older ones. Rentals are $3.99. Both stores had a similar selection of new releases, but the PlayStation Store lacked some kid titles that were on iTunes, such as “Toy Story.” There is also a directory of free podcasts on iTunes that makes it easy to download free videos to the iPod Touch, including kid-friendly material such as NASA space-shuttle landings and “Sesame Street” clips.

Games for PSPgo tend to be more intricate than those for iPod Touch, but that comes at a price. While Sony sells cheaper games, many are in the $19 to $30 range. I liked an adventure game called “Little Big Planet” starring a character called Sack Boy—for $39.99.

That price is steep compared with all the inexpensive and free content on the App Store for the iPod Touch. My kids liked a lot of it: a free dress-up game called “Dress Chica” and a $1.99 snowball-fight game called “Grinchmas.” My son particularly loved a free, beautifully illustrated short book called “Voodoo Doll’s Halloween Story.” My 6-year-old spent hours with a free math-drills program.

I found the iPod Touch offers the best entertainment options for young kids at bargain prices. And that is a gift for parents.

Email Nick.Wingfield@wsj.com. Walt Mossberg is on vacation.

This week: A lunch date with, some questions for and a few pertinent stats about Loren Bendele and his deal-finding social network, Savings.com, just in time for the holiday shopping wars!

Who: Loren Bendele

What: CEO of Savings.com.

Why: Savings.com combines a Web 1.0-style coupon site with social networking and crowd sourcing to create live lists of discounts offered by over 4,000 major online retailers.

And, gasp, the site is profitable.

Where: Savings.com/about (corporate bio); Santa Monica, Calif. (analog place); No Twitter profile (egads!).

Who else: couponcabin.com, retailmenot.com.

Five Stats You Won’t Find in His Facebook Profile

Worst Job: Bag boy at a Tom Thumb supermarket outside Dallas, Texas. “I was good though. I always got awards for being the fastest.”

Has a Business Crush on: Yelp.

Gadget of the Moment: iPhone from Apple (AAPL). “I love the Flight Tracker app. It’s a game–all about control.”

Wishes There Was an App for: “I know exactly what I want: A simple app where I can assign levels of importance to contacts. The app would remind me when I haven’t called them in a while. Like, some people I want to call once a week, or a month or a quarter. Just something that helps me keep up relationships.”

Fails at: Details. “I hire others who are much better at that.”

Bio in 140 Characters

Born outside of Dallas, TX. Chem Eng @Texas A&M. Dow Chemical, then to Teleflora, via consulting firms. Became CEO of Savings.com in 2007.

The Five Questions

Isn’t your model a little too “Pets.com, Web 1.0 bubble” to work?

It is sort of Web 1.0. But really, it’s a social network connecting deal fanatics. So, connecting people who are passionate and knowledgeable about getting great deals.

Some people engage at a very deep level with their own blogs and interaction. We call them our “deal pros.” You can also just come to the site and see what deals are being [rated as the best] by those deal pros. It’s based on votes of the people in the community.

What is this I hear about you being profitable? Don’t you know the start-up rules?

Well, our revenue model was important from the start. We make money because we partner with the retailers whose deals show up on our site. When someone sees a deal on our site, they click the link and go to [for instance] the Gap (GPS) Web site and buy something, we get paid.

We have relationships with 4,000 plus merchants–all of the top online merchants, and when a deal gets uploaded to our site [by a deal pro] we attach a tracking ID to that deal and report it to the merchant. I’m driving over $4 million per month to our top merchants. I’m the top sales driver for a lot of them.

We’ve been profitable since September 2007.

What is the single biggest immediate growth area for Savings.com?

International. We opened a site in England that has been growing like crazy. We had been doing it all from the U.S., with no team over there. You can do a lot remotely, but you can’t make those partner relationships, being face to face, getting the exclusive deals.

You can’t take them out to lunch and make the connections. We’ve just hired a team there full time. We actually hired the guy who was in charge of partner marketing for Amazon (AMZN) in Europe. He was so big on the opportunity that we have, that he left them for us.

What businesses would the world be better off without?

Ugh, I can’t stand predatory online businesses; cashforgold.com or those payday loan places. There are lots of those check-out services where they offer you free magazine subscriptions and it turns out that they start charging you and you don’t find out until a year later.

They tell you they are going to do it, but they do it in tiny print and it’s just dishonest. We get offers to include those sorts of things on our site all the time. It’s just not what we want to do. It’s important to keep the community pure.

When did you get the business bug?

My parents had a popcorn and yogurt shop, so they could buy things wholesale. When I was in fifth grade, I guess, I started selling Blow Pops out of my backpack. Remember those things? I could buy them for like seven cents apiece and sell them for 50 cents.

I made a lot of money doing that until the teachers shut me down.

The In Living Color Interview

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091127/almost-famous-savings-coms-loren-bendele/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090929/iphoneos-gaming-platform/ http://allthingsd.com/20090929/iphoneos-gaming-platform/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:47:56 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=25598 “Don’t let the haters tell you [the iPhone] sucks compared to the [Nintendo] DS or the [Sony] PSP. It doesn’t. It’s good. It’s clear that the quality of iPhone games is eclipsing its console counterparts, and that’s even more acute when you compare it against the prior generation.”

That’s what ngmoco co-founder and Electronic Arts (ERTS) alum Neil Young said of Apple’s iconic handset at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this year, and it’s worth reflecting on a bit in light of a new report from Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi that claims the iPhone OS will soon create pricing and customer migration pressure for traditional gaming platforms.

Noting that some 665-760 million games may have been downloaded from the Apple (AAPL) App Store during the last 12 months, Sacconaghi estimates that the installed base for the iPhone and iPod touch platform could amount to about one third of the total handheld gaming installed base by 2012.

“We believe that gaming embodies the power of Apple’s App store: it has dramatically lowered the entry barriers for both developers and gamers alike, resulting in an unparalleled number of available games at affordable prices, which is creating lock-in and enhanced interest in Apple’s high-margin iPhone (and iPod Touch) platforms,” Sacconaghi writes.

Continuing, the analyst adds: “By most measures, gaming has been the killer App Store category, accounting for an estimated 40% of all downloads. Most importantly, we believe that gaming is providing yet another incremental, differentiated reason for consumers to purchase iPhones and iPod Touches, and creates powerful lock-in to the App Store platform and Apple products on a go forward basis.”

The upshot of all this is bad news for traditional gaming console developers–particularly those who have dismissed it as a novelty. “Most gaming developers today view the iPhone and other smart phones as an incremental opportunity, which targets the casual gamer but not the dedicating gaming enthusiast,” Sacconaghi explains. “Over time, however, we believe that the combination of evolutionary improvements in iPhone/iPod gaming functionality, the convenience of the App Store download model, the App’s Store leading title selection and lower price points could cause some migration among gaming enthusiasts to the Apple platform and/or pressure traditional gaming incumbents’ hardware and software pricing.”

And this is clearly what Apple (AAPL) is aiming for. Consider these recent remarks from Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing: “People are starting to see what a great gaming device this is. When you think about the companies that came before us…when you played those other systems, they seemed so cool, but now when you look at them, they don’t stack up against the iPod touch….No Multi-Touch user experience, Games are expensive, No App Store, No iPod, Expensive Games ($25-$40) and uncomfortable retail buying experience. [There are] 607 games for PSP and 3,680 games for Nintendo DS. [But there are ] 21,178 Game and Entertainment Titles at App Store.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090929/iphoneos-gaming-platform/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods/ http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:33:38 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=24252

Apple has sold some 225 million iPods to date, making it one of the most popular electronic devices ever. And it’s sure to sell even more after the updates the company announced at this morning’s event. Among them: Larger, cheaper iPod touches and nanos with cameras and FM radios.

Following introductory remarks by Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller offers details, noting that “the iPod has 73.8 percent market share. The next biggest category is ‘other,’ and after that, SanDisk and then Microsoft pulling up the rear.”

Schiller adds that Apple has sold 20 million iPod touches since the device debuted. He runs through a lengthy sales pitch for the iPod touch, touting it as a killer pocket computer and taking potshots at rivals like Dell (DELL) along the way.

Moving on to games, Schiller notes the discrepancy between the number of games on gaming platforms like the Nintendo DS and the iPod touch. The iPhone OS, he notes, has 21,178 games. The DS has just 3,680. Point taken.

Moving on to some new game demos now. First up: Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed 2, which, we are told, is “all about visceral combat, brutal hand-to-hand combat and one-shot kills.” Behind the presenter, a warrior is mercilessly beaten into submission.

Schiller returns to the stage, “Boy, that looks like fun.”

Tapulous, the developer of Tap Tap Revenge, and Gameloft, follow, both introducing new games. Gameloft’s Nova–a first-person shooter with multiplayer option–seems a far more compelling effort than Tapulous’s Riddim Ribbon, which appears to be a Black Eyed Peas-heavy variation of Tap-Tap.

Up next, Electronic Arts, which is apparently headlining the games section of today’s event. EA’s Travis Boatman takes the stage to introduce Madden NFL 10. The game boasts both custom-kick and draw-a-play-on-screen features developed specifically for the iPhone OS. Madden NFL 10 is available today.

Schiller again returns to the stage. “The iPod touch is the most affordable gateway to the App Store,” he says, adding that $199 is a “magic price point” in the iPod market.

With that, he announces the iPod touch price cuts we heard about earlier this morning: An 8GB model for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. All three devices are significantly faster, says Schiller. Interestingly, none seem to feature that rumored camera.

Price drops as well for the nano, but we knew about these. Apple has dropped the price of the iPod shuffle as well: $59 and $79. And the company is offering them in a new selection of colors. Plus, there’s a special edition of the shuffle crafted from stainless steel.

Steve Jobs returns to the stage. So those are the iPods, but there is one more thing: A video camera. He talks about the exploding video market, mentions the Flip, etc. “We want to get in on this market as well and we’re doing it for free….Boy, this really is the new Apple,” he quips.

Yes, the iPod nano does indeed now feature a video camera. The video quality looks impressive. Whoa: Apple has also added FM radio, a voice recorder and a pedometer to the nano. New polished anodized aluminum colors. 8GB model for $149, 16GB model for $179.

After a few concluding remarks about the new iPod lineup, Jobs announces what has become an annual tradition at these events: A live performance. Today’s artist: Norah Jones.

The end of her set concludes today’s event. No iPlatform. No Beatles on iTunes. But lots of product refreshes, software intros, and price cuts. Plus: Steve Jobs is definitely back.

Live from Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event

• iPod Updates, Games, Nano Video Cameras
• iTunes 9, iTunes LP, Home Sharing, Genius Mixes
• Steve Jobs: “I’m Vertical, Back at Apple and Loving Every Day of It”
• Event Photos by Adam Tow

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods-2/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:33:38 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=24252

Apple has sold some 225 million iPods to date, making it one of the most popular electronic devices ever. And it’s sure to sell even more after the updates the company announced at this morning’s event. Among them: Larger, cheaper iPod touches and nanos with cameras and FM radios.

Following introductory remarks by Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller offers details, noting that “the iPod has 73.8 percent market share. The next biggest category is ‘other,’ and after that, SanDisk and then Microsoft pulling up the rear.”

Schiller adds that Apple has sold 20 million iPod touches since the device debuted. He runs through a lengthy sales pitch for the iPod touch, touting it as a killer pocket computer and taking potshots at rivals like Dell (DELL) along the way.

Moving on to games, Schiller notes the discrepancy between the number of games on gaming platforms like the Nintendo DS and the iPod touch. The iPhone OS, he notes, has 21,178 games. The DS has just 3,680. Point taken.

Moving on to some new game demos now. First up: Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed 2, which, we are told, is “all about visceral combat, brutal hand-to-hand combat and one-shot kills.” Behind the presenter, a warrior is mercilessly beaten into submission.

Schiller returns to the stage, “Boy, that looks like fun.”

Tapulous, the developer of Tap Tap Revenge, and Gameloft, follow, both introducing new games. Gameloft’s Nova–a first-person shooter with multiplayer option–seems a far more compelling effort than Tapulous’s Riddim Ribbon, which appears to be a Black Eyed Peas-heavy variation of Tap-Tap.

Up next, Electronic Arts, which is apparently headlining the games section of today’s event. EA’s Travis Boatman takes the stage to introduce Madden NFL 10. The game boasts both custom-kick and draw-a-play-on-screen features developed specifically for the iPhone OS. Madden NFL 10 is available today.

Schiller again returns to the stage. “The iPod touch is the most affordable gateway to the App Store,” he says, adding that $199 is a “magic price point” in the iPod market.

With that, he announces the iPod touch price cuts we heard about earlier this morning: An 8GB model for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. All three devices are significantly faster, says Schiller. Interestingly, none seem to feature that rumored camera.

Price drops as well for the nano, but we knew about these. Apple has dropped the price of the iPod shuffle as well: $59 and $79. And the company is offering them in a new selection of colors. Plus, there’s a special edition of the shuffle crafted from stainless steel.

Steve Jobs returns to the stage. So those are the iPods, but there is one more thing: A video camera. He talks about the exploding video market, mentions the Flip, etc. “We want to get in on this market as well and we’re doing it for free….Boy, this really is the new Apple,” he quips.

Yes, the iPod nano does indeed now feature a video camera. The video quality looks impressive. Whoa: Apple has also added FM radio, a voice recorder and a pedometer to the nano. New polished anodized aluminum colors. 8GB model for $149, 16GB model for $179.

After a few concluding remarks about the new iPod lineup, Jobs announces what has become an annual tradition at these events: A live performance. Today’s artist: Norah Jones.

The end of her set concludes today’s event. No iPlatform. No Beatles on iTunes. But lots of product refreshes, software intros, and price cuts. Plus: Steve Jobs is definitely back.

Live from Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event

• iPod Updates, Games, Nano Video Cameras
• iTunes 9, iTunes LP, Home Sharing, Genius Mixes
• Steve Jobs: “I’m Vertical, Back at Apple and Loving Every Day of It”
• Event Photos by Adam Tow

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090909/live-from-apples-lets-rock-event-ipods-2/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090507/nintendos-mysterious-caution-on-fy-10/ http://allthingsd.com/20090507/nintendos-mysterious-caution-on-fy-10/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 20:30:45 +0000 Tiernan Ray http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=11559 Here’s a puzzle: Why does Nintendo expect dramatically fewer software titles to sell for its Wii and DS game machines this year?

This morning, Tokyo time, the company announced results for its fiscal year ended in March that were a little bit better than expected thanks to the strength of the Japanese Yen, turning in 1.8 trillion Yen in revenue ($18 billion, roughly) and 555 billion in operating profit. But for the current year, the company forecast sales to be flat, at 1.8 trillion, which is in line with estimates, but profit of 490 billion Yen, which is short of Street estimates for about 517 billion.

Nintendo says that’s because it will see a sharp decline in software titles for the DS, and software, of course, carries higher profit margins.

Read the rest of this post

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090507/nintendos-mysterious-caution-on-fy-10/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090421/nintendo-freshens-a-game-player/ http://allthingsd.com/20090421/nintendo-freshens-a-game-player/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:46:02 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/20090421/nintendo-freshens-a-game-player/ Nintendo Co.’s strategy of creating videogames with simple graphics that anyone can play has worked well on its Wii and portable DS. Earlier this month, the company released the $170 Nintendo DSi in an attempt to spruce up its three-year-old DS Lite and 5 1/2-year-old DS. At first glance, this plain, rectangular clamshell with dual screens appears to be the same as its predecessors.

But a deeper dive into the DSi reveals its improvements. It now has two cameras: one facing the user and another facing out; its earlier iterations had none. It also now has a SecureDigital memory-card slot, so you can plug in an SD card and listen to AAC music files from iTunes on your DSi, which now works as a portable music player, or expand the DSi’s storage capacity.

The DSi is also Wi-Fi enabled in a more secure way than previous models and can be used to buy and download games and applications directly from Nintendo’s DSi Shop online marketplace. This solves the problem of carrying around multiple game cartridges or losing them, but might bother people who like swapping games with one another. The DSi’s Web browser is also faster than its predecessors.

These physical changes affect the way the DSi works in good and bad ways. For example, its two cameras can be used for photo-related games like WarioWare: Snapped!, a clever photo-booth-like game that tricks you into making funny faces while secretly taking your picture.

But while the DSi’s newly added SD card slot expands the device’s memory and brings music on to the DSi, this replaces another slot that was used for playing GameBoy Advance games on the older DS and DS Lite. The physical slot for DS games remains.

Overall, the Nintendo DSi is a fun little portable gaming device. I’ve been fooling around with it for a few weeks, testing games and applications since they became available on April 5. My DSi tapped into various Wi-Fi networks with no trouble and its browser was straightforward and zippy. The DSi speakers sounded great for a tiny device. On the downside, the DSi Shop is still in its infancy so only 10 games and apps are available there. The DSi retains an aging, boxy look — a design that could have been freshened up.

Until Oct. 5, Nintendo is running a promotion for its DSi Shop, which accepts points to buy games and applications; $1 is equal to about 100 points. People who buy the DSi will receive 1,000 free points for the DSi Shop. New content is added to the shop each Monday. This content ranges in price from free to 800 points or more. I bought and downloaded a variety of things, ranging from the free Web browser to a 200-point magic-trick game called Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face. I also downloaded WarioWare: Snapped! for 500 points.

Points for the DSi Shop can be purchased online or at retail stores and they’re sold in increments of 2,000 for $20. Before purchasing and downloading, a notification with each game and app tells you how many “blocks,” or memory, it will take up on your DSi. WarioWare: Snapped!, for example, took up 61 blocks. This information really doesn’t mean anything unless you go to your system settings to see how many blocks you’ve used and how many remain. By default, each DSi is shipped with 256 megabytes of flash memory or 1,024 blocks.

The DSi cameras are only .3 megapixel each and don’t use a zoom or flash, but photos taken with them looked colorful and clear on the DSi’s two 3.25-inch, 256×192-pixel-resolution screens. Instead of sending photos to friends directly from the DSi, you have to save them to the SD card and transfer them to a computer to share them.

The Nintendo DSi is a spruced-up successor to two of the company’s earlier game players.

Nintendo says the “i” in DSi is meant to represent the personal aspect of the device since it has built-in tools to let you create your own content. For example, a game called DSi Sound lets you sing or hum into a built-in microphone, then rearrange your recording to change its pitch, speed and sound — or even to add harmony. AAC music files pulled on to the device via SD card can be changed in various ways, though they can’t be saved. Photos taken with the cameras can be morphed in nine different ways including cutting different photos and piecing them together on the screen.

The DSi has parental controls, which the DS and DS Lite didn’t have. These controls let parents turn off Web browsing completely. A better compromise might have been to let parents limit kids to certain sites. The parental controls can also put restrictions on the DSi so it can’t play games with certain ratings. For instance, if a child goes to school and tries to play a friend’s M-rated game in his DSi, it won’t work.

The DSi works well as a music player, albeit a lot chunkier than an iPod. A high-capacity SD memory card could potentially add hundreds of songs to the device, and you can press buttons to play on-screen instruments in the background while listening to your tunes. If you’re using headphones (not included with the device) and you close the DSi, music will keep playing through the headphones so you can put the DSi in a bag and go. In past versions, the DSi went to sleep when closed. It plays only AAC files, not MP3s.

I used the DSi’s Web browser to read some news on WSJ.com and to check my Web-based email, plugging letters and symbols into the touch-screen keyboard. A stylus can be used for precise lettering, but I got by with my fingernails.

The DSi games are approachable for all types of people, and are obviously not geared toward the graphics-rich visuals that hard-core gamers adore. I liked the way they incorporated the device’s touch screen for drawings and its cameras for photo games.

The Nintendo DSi is $20 more than the price of the original DS, and $40 more than the DS Lite. But its two cameras, snappy Web browser and music-player capabilities make it a likable and well-rounded device that any family member could use.

Edited By Walter S. Mossberg

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://solution.allthingsd.com

Corrections & Amplifications

Photos taken on the Nintendo DSi can be sent to other DSis. Due to inaccurate information provided by Nintendo, yesterday’s Mossberg Solution erroneously stated photos couldn’t be shared between DSis.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090421/nintendo-freshens-a-game-player/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090324/ps3-xbox-wii-and-iphone/ http://allthingsd.com/20090324/ps3-xbox-wii-and-iphone/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:38:45 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=15298 “Our love affair with the iPhone began by simply touching it. This was rapidly becoming the most important device I had ever owned, it was an all-encompassing, complete device. And I knew that that device was going to enable incredible things for gaming.”

That breathless and swooning introduction aside, ngmoco co-founder Neil Young’s keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today was noteworthy in that it really heralds the arrival of the iPhone as a gaming platform. The GDC is the largest annual gathering of professional videogame developers, so the fact that Young, an Electronic Arts (ERTS) alum turned iPhone developer, delivered his remarks from a stage that will soon host Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima says a lot about the esteem in which game developers hold the device–dismissive comments from Sony (SNE) be damned.

Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone is still in its early stages as a gaming platform and make no mistake, it is a viable gaming platform, said Young. And he should know; ngmoco–the developer of popular iPhone game titles like Rolando, Dropship, and Topple–just closed a $10 million second-round of funding after only nine months in business.

“Don’t let the haters tell you it sucks compared to the [Nintendo] DS or the [Sony] PSP,” Young said of the iPhone. “It doesn’t. It’s good. It’s clear that the quality of iPhone games is eclipsing its console counterparts, and that’s even more acute when you compare it against the prior generation.” Why?

Unlike its console rivals, the iPhone is always connected, users always carry it, it offers unique features that can’t be found anywhere else–a touchscreen, an accelerometer, connectivity. In this way, said Young, the iPhone is similar to the Nintendo DS. When that device first launched, many thought it would be beaten into whimpering submission by the far more robust PSP. But that never happened. “Nintendo was able to win that battle by combining great software with hardware that it understood very well,” Young said. “If Nintendo made the iPhone, what would they focus on? I think they would build games that could only be on the iPhone. The designs would be progressive, discontinuous, and would have the user and the user’s context always in mind. They would have great underlying game design with native device functionality at the core.”

His point: Graphics and sound alone don’t necessarily make a great app. As Nintendo has shown us with the DS and the Wii, gaming is all about the platform. And Apple has clearly created one to be reckoned with.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090324/ps3-xbox-wii-and-iphone/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090318/nintendo-game-over-time-to-sell-deutsche-bank-says/ http://allthingsd.com/20090318/nintendo-game-over-time-to-sell-deutsche-bank-says/#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:35:06 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=9568 Has Nintendo run out of new levels to play?

Deutsche Bank analyst Satoru Kikuchi this morning launched coverage of the videogame company with a Sell rating, asserting that profits are likely to “peak and decline after growing on the success of the Wii and the DS.” He asserts that earnings could “return to past levels if the company fails to come up with new blockbuster platforms.”

Kikuchi expects Nintendo’s profits in the March 2009 fiscal year to “slightly” excess guidance, but then sees profits sliding 18 percent in FY 2010, due at least in part to unfavorable exchange rates, with another 19 percent fall in FY 2011 “as sales slow.”

In Kikuchi’’s view, a key question going forward is well much Nintendo can boost sales for long-selling titles for the Wii and the DS. He notes that sales in Japan have “declined substantially” for both Wii and DS hardware and software.

Read the rest of this post

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