Gaucho420

Is Nintendo the Apple of Steve Jobs' Eye?

What's NTDOY"s cash position? In the past, that has been a huge hurdle in any merger rumours.

Also, Nintendo in Japan is considered to be a national gem, similar to Ford, GE or whoever else you want in the US

While I do think it makes sense on many levels and certainly both companies have similar customer service orientations geared at high sastifaction of its customers, I beleive NTODY's large cash position (especially with an appreciating YEN) combined with NTDOY's treasured position in Japan, that it would be very, very hard for someone of Apple's size to pull it off.

The Japanese would see it as a foreign take-over of a very treasured company and I'm not so sure they would let it happen.

Protectionism sucks, but, Japan certainly wouldn't be the first one's to do it.

GameStop Director Leonard Riggio Shows Us the Future of Gaming

Dedicated gamers will get their games faster by downloading. I have XBL and if a game came out at midnight online, I'd have XBL downloaded overnight and have it ready for use in the morning. That's much faster than waiting for a retail store to open the next day.

I go to store now, such as this week to pick up NBA2k10, because I wanted the anniversay edition. But had it been a normal non-anniversary year and had the option been there to download it straight to the hard-drive from XBL, I probably would've opted for that.

I think a bigger argument agaisnt downloads is 1) the added cost of a hard drive to store them (especially when you get to the full sized games), 2) the lack of a manual and 3) no trade in value on downloads.

I know quite a few dedicated gamers who don't download that many games, because they dont' feel like wasting money on a hard-drive. And that's the over-riding reason, plus the trade-in value of discs.

For the 360, retailers should thank MSFT for making the hard drives propriatery and super expensive, as it keeps a large number of gamers hooked to retailers, as nobody wants to pay MSFT ridiculous price on its 60 gig or 120 gig drives.

I have paid for the 120 gig drive, because I can afford it, but most can and most simply don't even trie demos, movies or anything else, as the hard-drive on the 360 is cost-prohibitive.

I know the PS3 can use any drive you choose, but even at bottom barrell prices, it still cost money.

So in my humble opinion, online gaming will be restricted (for a tiny while) by the cost of extra storage. I have seen this to be true across my gaming friends and I know a boatload of all ages, sex and income types. Gamers want to play...paying for a hard-drive is simply an unwanted hassle at the current prices.

Handhelds: The Next Console Generation

I agree with Bruce's assertions here, but I will say that the Wii/360/PS3 business will still be important in the long run, for headlines and publicity alone. Everyone's knows the Wii in the public...but not everyone in the public knows of the DS, it has not had the same cross-generation appeal, at least from what I've seen.

As far as Nokia and Apple, while I don't doubt they can put together a fine machine (although gaming controls are a big question mark for both), will they be able to secure games? Meaning, can they convince publishers upfront to produce games in advance? I'm not so sure...even the Wii had doubters at first and only its success changed the mind of publishes. Being a life long gamer, and I respect both Apple and Nokia, I own non-gaming products from both firsm...as a gamer, I don't trust either, especially as Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony all do a tremendous job. Why switch?

And that in itself is the problem for Apple and Nokia, convincing gamers to switch...which I don't see happening at all, as they'll need to have 1) better hardware 2) great games and 3) a lower price point to convince existing gamers to try a new company. I'm not sure this perfect storm of marketing and design can happen without the support of a major game company and at that, most of them.