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"I think the iPod touch is the most dangerous thing that ever happened to the publishers, ever, and they don’t get it for two reasons. It’s going to be a different audience, it’s going to be young kids because iPod touch is $199 this Christmas, it’ll be $149 next year, $129. When its $99 every little nine year old kid is going to have one of those instead of a DS or a PSP, and if you train kids that this is the game that you want to play… How about Tetris? Why would you pay $20 for Tetris when you can get it for $6.99 or $3.99 on iPod touch? It’s a serious threat to pricing. And once people start to look at this as a substitute for the DS for smaller kids, for 12 and unders, then you’re going to train a whole generation of 12 and unders that this is a perfectly acceptable gaming experience at that low price point. I think that we all started playing arcade games because we’re a little bit older, but all the 20 year old kids playing games now started playing on the GBA and you work your way up, and if you start with an iPod touch I’m not sure they do work their way up. I think Apple intends to capture that audience and keep them. It’s dangerous and I’m not a big fan of it from a publisher perspective.” - Wedbush analyst, Michael Pachter
I have to admit that the pricing differences between the platform really bugs me. The same game on the App Store will cost me $10, instead of $30 on the DS. Now don't get me wrong, I much prefer the controls of the DS...but are they worth an extra $20?
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"The Pachter Says: Quack Quack!"
Admittedly though, this will collide with the blue ocean strategy of Nintendo. Therefore, this analysis may not be very applicable to Sony/MS, but it will be for Nintendo, who also rely on the minigame audience for profit. Then again, one can argue that they now have DSiWare, but the question is: how many people own a DSi?
I'm actually amazed he didn't just raise the point of pricing, but opened the whole can there. Consider me honestly surprised.
That's regarding the few games that will exist on both platforms, though; the DS will continue to have tons and tons of exclusives not available on iPods / iPhones, let alone any other system. No worries, at all.
will it erase the ds? i'm not sure . the psp is a non factor , a colossal failure. Anyway cellphone games , texting, iphone, are real threat .
I've seen more people playing ds in public than iphone or cellphone gaming. Non gaming apps on phone are way more spread
I know full well that the mass of sucker gamers being enticed by a fully Digital Age of 'DLC', developer price hikes, no creative artworks [like box arts], multiple patches and server issues, [generally fully PC game machines] is the real threat to gaming [not that many seem to care, or have the brain cells to comprehend it in the first place].
They will see it though, and then it'll be too late.
Then again, the PSP Go is failing, so maybe there's hope yet.
@Chosenoneknuckles
The only reason the PSP Go is failing is because Sony went about it the completely wrong way. They priced the device too high, eliminated the possibility of using UMDs on the device (or someway to make games you've already purchased in UMD form usable) made the device uncomfortable, and made the screen smaller. I don't know what Sony was thinking when they made the device.
You already see this on the Wii. Games that are 29 or less tend to sell better then 39+ games regardless of quality.
As nice as it is to have cheap games, nothing good can come out of this, even for apple.
I love playing Peggle and a few other games on my iPhone, but I still prefer to do actual gaming on my DS.
The DS just offers richer and deeper experiences with better control options and features.
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