Dear Reader:
You are viewing
a story from GN Version 4.0.
Time may not have been kind to formatting, integrity of links, images, information, etc.
Sony 'shocked' by 3DS Circle Pad Accessory, hopes 3DS succeeds for healthy competition
Now this is a respectful, honest and classy interview from Sony. This is exactly the kind of thing that I like to see. Let's hope Sony keeps this kind of tone as the industry moves forward.
A portion of a Game Informer interview with Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios...
GI: It’s suspicious that Nintendo is releasing a second circle pad attachment for the 3DS after gamers universally praised the Vita’s dual analog sticks. Can you talk about what looks like an attempt by Nintendo to keep up with Sony?
SY: Well it’s not like they looked at PS Vita and said “we need to do that as well.” I don’t know. It’s clear that they didn’t believe a second analog was necessary when they designed the 3DS, so I can only guess it was requested by Capcom’s side. Maybe a Capcom producer told Nintendo that to play Monster Hunter we need [two] analog sticks. That I don’t know, so I can only guesstimate. It was a bit shocking to see what they came up with.
GI: Touching on the 3DS again, it seems like Nintendo responded to the Vita’s low price tag by dropping the 3DS’ cost even lower. It appears to be a direct response from Nintendo. Is it exciting to see Nintendo, which has had a death grip on the handheld market, seemingly react to the Vita’s hype?
SY: I don’t personally believe that they dropped the price of the 3DS to respond to our pricing. We didn’t price PS Vita to their price, either. We had that plan since the last couple years. My personal guesstimate is that they have their business plan and goals to sell a certain amount of 3DS units, and they realized post-launch was that the pricing was not helping them to achieve the goal that they set. That’s my estimate. As far as if I’m excited, I’m not sure. If the 3DS sells like crazy and no one is interested in PS Vita, that’s a problem. There are lots of analysts talking about, “well, you know there are smart phones, there’s no need for dedicated portable game machines.” I don’t believe it. But if they point to certain performance of the 3DS and say the smartphone is here, it doesn’t help us either. I like to see healthy competition between Nintendo’s system and ours because it helps innovation. It’s always a good thing to have.
Full interview here
A portion of a Game Informer interview with Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios...
GI: It’s suspicious that Nintendo is releasing a second circle pad attachment for the 3DS after gamers universally praised the Vita’s dual analog sticks. Can you talk about what looks like an attempt by Nintendo to keep up with Sony?
SY: Well it’s not like they looked at PS Vita and said “we need to do that as well.” I don’t know. It’s clear that they didn’t believe a second analog was necessary when they designed the 3DS, so I can only guess it was requested by Capcom’s side. Maybe a Capcom producer told Nintendo that to play Monster Hunter we need [two] analog sticks. That I don’t know, so I can only guesstimate. It was a bit shocking to see what they came up with.
GI: Touching on the 3DS again, it seems like Nintendo responded to the Vita’s low price tag by dropping the 3DS’ cost even lower. It appears to be a direct response from Nintendo. Is it exciting to see Nintendo, which has had a death grip on the handheld market, seemingly react to the Vita’s hype?
SY: I don’t personally believe that they dropped the price of the 3DS to respond to our pricing. We didn’t price PS Vita to their price, either. We had that plan since the last couple years. My personal guesstimate is that they have their business plan and goals to sell a certain amount of 3DS units, and they realized post-launch was that the pricing was not helping them to achieve the goal that they set. That’s my estimate. As far as if I’m excited, I’m not sure. If the 3DS sells like crazy and no one is interested in PS Vita, that’s a problem. There are lots of analysts talking about, “well, you know there are smart phones, there’s no need for dedicated portable game machines.” I don’t believe it. But if they point to certain performance of the 3DS and say the smartphone is here, it doesn’t help us either. I like to see healthy competition between Nintendo’s system and ours because it helps innovation. It’s always a good thing to have.