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Nintendo Shelved Brand New Handheld

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

June 3, 2009

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the company recently decided not to release a new handheld gaming system, despite having taken the design to completion.

In an interview with CNBC, Iwata said the decision was made within the last three years, and also noted that it wasn’t the first time the company had made such a move.

“In the history of Nintendo there are several such examples," he said. "But when we are launching new hardware, the most important is thing is to sustain the momentum. If introducing new hardware won’t do anything to do that, well…"

Nintendo’s most recent hardware release, the third iteration of its DS handheld, has sold over two million units throughout Europe and the US in under two months.

Iwata also said that the company plans to address a recent slowdown of Wii sales by introducing strong new software rather than a console price cut.

"People often talk about the price cut as if it’s an almighty weapon. The fact of the matter is that what a price cut can do is rather limited. … In the long history of video games, at the time of the price cut we see a momentary hike in sales, but usually that can not sustain its momentum and it soon comes down to below the price cut level."

Bickle's picture
On June 4th Bickle said:

Nintendo knows that they're in big trouble now that their gimmick has been completely surpassed by both of their competiton, which also have far superior hardware. They're in major trouble on the technology front, and with 360 and PS3 cuts on the close horizon, every dollar down means more and more people will choose a real system instead of a glorified bowling machine

Matthew Dart's picture
On June 4th Matthew Dart said:


What do you mean "surpassed by both their competition"? Natal and the PS3's iteration aren't even out yet. Are you saying that because a gimmick that is better realized will automatically turn the attention away from the people who would buy gimmicks in the first place? Casual's don't give a damn about realism or how you can swing a sword to a 1:1 pinpoint motion. They care about brand identity and ease of use. Both PS3 and Xbox don't have the kid-friendly aura surrounding it that the Wii has because of well known titles (that even parents know of) like Mario or Kirby. What does the PS3 and Xbox have in comparison? LittleBigPlanet (which suffered disappointing sales, although a great game), and Uncharted vs Gears of War and Halo. Besides LBP, there are no titles that parents would ever relate to, for them or for their children.

Besides, Nintendo themselves stated that they didn't want, nor need, to push the graphics front. You know why? Because they don't need to. It's as simple as that, and they are smart for it. That doesn't make games like Mario, Zelda, or Metroid bad games by any means. Your points are pretty much all moot and based on a bias that you have against the Wii.

The Wii is here to stay, they are just hitting a bump.

DcTurner's picture
On June 4th DcTurner said:



Considering that plenty of folks are willing to shell out for a DSi, this makes perfect sense; it's clearly too soon to release a new handheld. However, when the time comes, it would be splendid if Nintendo could find a design that doesn't cry out for immediate improvement. The original GBA and DS were so utterly foul that refinements were inevitable, leaving early adopters with an ugly lump of plastic.

The cynical monster in me reckons that Nintendo banks on hardware revisions as a way of maintaining interest in old hardware, but maybe that's not the case. Maybe they geniunely thought the launch DS was a good looking machine.... (it could have been a lot worse)

AkIRA_22's picture
On June 4th AkIRA_22 said:

Good, I just bought a Second Hand DS lite from Game last night.