Nintendo always working on new hardware News
DS Wii News by Ellie Gibson
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed the company is always developing new hardware - even though they end up throwing some of their ideas in the bin.
Speaking in an investor call he said, "We do not think that Nintendo DS and Wii will last forever. Our internal hardware teams are always researching and working on new hardware so that we can launch them whenever we find a very interesting idea.
"You may not be able to believe this, but even when Nintendo has completed a hardware, it does not mean that we will surely launch it," he added. Apparently it takes up to three years to develop a new piece of hardware. Then an internal team decides whether they'd be better off sticking with the hardware that's already on the market. If so, they might still end up using some of the new ideas and custom chips in future products.
"[New] hardware is not needed until the time our software developers see the end in making new software with the existing hardware, or unless we have no more new market to explore and all the potential consumers have purchased our hardware," said Iwata.
"The more decisive factor is when the software developers will start demanding for new hardware as they cannot create any more software with surprise factors with the existing one. Nintendo has always been making the hardware in order to prepare for that day to come."
Speaking of existing hardware - any chance of a price cut? "I have never said that cutting the suggested retail price is not in the cards," Iwata said. However, he added, there are problems with applying price cuts on a global basis, and the effect doesn't last long anyway.
"Accordingly, if we really do enact a price cut, it must be exactly when it can maximise the business. At least for now, I have no specific ideas about the price cut at all." Apart from, 'Let's not do one,' presumably.
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Comments: 1-16 of 16 in total
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Vice.Destroyer
22/05/09 @ 08:37
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Price cut? On the Wii? Be honest and say what you think. "Not bloody likely". If he ever lets himself get quoted like that, I'll buy every single version of the DS as a mark of respect for his candidness.
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spidermanalf
22/05/09 @ 08:37
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Looking forward to the DS WII, a portable WII that is DS sized, just watching all the spazzes on the bus flailing about!
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IneptPercy
22/05/09 @ 10:57
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If the colour of your console isn't what you want then change it, mine is now blue because I felt like it and the warrenty had ran out anyway.
As for a price drop, if people keep buying at the rate they are they will never drop the price, It must be costing them less to produce now but they don't need the extra sales a price drop will bring as they can only just keep up at the current price. As for new hardware, does that mena they migth actually come up with a new GPU, there is only so far you can push the gamecube... I mean Wii GPU you know. |
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Sensible words. No expected price cut (obviously).
They are always developing new hardware, that's the way it goes. This applies to Sony and Microsoft as well, PS4 and Xbox720 should be well into R&D stage now. We should expect an incoming new generation within 2 years (I know companies and analysts say otherwise, but they are lying as always to protect their business, the cicle is the cicle and current-gen is halfway there). Big questions... Is Sony going again for an impressive machine with an odd architecture and costly parts? Will Microsoft learn from the past and make its next machine a silent and RROD-free beast? Will Nintendo use all the cash to produce some decent hardware instead of overclocking their previous-gen? |
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@alkeno
You are right, but a little off the mark in my opinion, in that it'll be within three years rather than two. As most cycles have been a good five years. The UK is only two years in with PS3, and two and a half in with Wii. If you look at Sony's cycle, UK release, it went late 1995, late 2000, early 2007, I think late 2011 would be the absolute earliest they'd go PS4, and I emphasise earliest. Nintendo - SNES 1992, N64 early 1997, Gamecube early 2002, Wii late 2006, the trend would suggest late 2011ish as well. |
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BonzoBanana
23/05/09 @ 09:37
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I think the revamped ps3 will have an effect on nintendo. I'm not saying it will kill wii sales of course just dent them a fair bit and so nintendo will need to do something to make the wii more interesting again. More colours etc.
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I think in January I read in a Japanese newspaper that Nintendo was buying a new R&D building and also it was one of the top companies that Japanese Engineers wanted to work for. I think it was rated Number 1 for future potential or something similar.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 25/05/09 @ 03:33
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Price Cut? Does anybody think £180 for a console is expensive? Especially at launch. it isnt. Its ludicrously cheap, regardless of the hardware in it.
Remeber when all consoles were £400. Saturn for example. Cant remeber if the dreamcast was or not? £180 was cheap as chips at launch and although people think that becasue it has been out a while it should have a price cut is mad. Just becasue something ages doesnt mean it should be cheaper. Classic cars? haha. I know techology isnt the same, but if it was cheap enough to start with, why should it deserve a price cut when it consistantly sells at the cheap price it already is? |
Comments: 1-16 of 16 in total
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