Game-console war intensifies

The opening salvo has been fired in the game console makers' war for Christmas dollars. Nintendo has lowered the manufacturer's suggested retail price by half for its Gamecube, now down to US$99.99.

The move makes the cube-shaped device significantly cheaper than its competitors, Sony's Playstation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. Yet some critics are not impressed. They see the price cuts as reflecting the Gamecube's poor sales figures, not a position of strength.

Some million Gamecubes have been sold worldwide so far. Nintendo had hoped to reach this benchmark no later than the end of last March, however. The fact that the company fell short of its goals led to rumors that the Gamecube was slated to be discontinued.

These rumors gained support when production was temporarily halted in August. The warehouses reportedly were full of product, but demand was low. Almost simultaneously, Nintendo head Satoru Iwata announced that a "fully novel gaming product" would be released in the spring of 2004.

Axel Herr, managing director of Nintendo, nevertheless offers reassurance for nervous Gamecube fans.

"The Gamecube has a future. This can be seen in all of the new games that are planned for release in the coming weeks and months," Herr says.

Herr that this shows that his firm has no intentions of abandoning its troubled child in favour of a successor. He did remain mum on the mysterious coup that the Japanese video game specialists are planning for the spring. "We have a general idea, but don't know any specifics. That said, if Satoru Iwata announces something that could revolutionize the media landscape, it could really turn out to be true," he says.

Gamecube have had other reasons to be worried about their chosen device: Several game manufacturers, including Eidos, which makes the Tomb Raider series, and Codemasters, which produces the rally simulator Colin McRae, have indicated that they will suspend development of games for the Gamecube. On the other hand, the firms never produced much software for the device even in better times.

Even more importantly, one of the key game manufacturers, Electronic Arts (EA), has announced that it will not follow the same path. According to Joerg Trouvain, EA's business director, "EA publishes games for all platforms. We will continue to support Nintendo's Gamecube." He also sees the Gamecube as having a future "because the market is large enough for three home consoles."

The competition is determined not to let the Gamecube's price drop cause it to make mistakes. "We have already planned our promotions for the Christmas season, and the massive price cuts for the Gamecube won't affect them," says Sony's managing director Manfred Gerdes. One such measure is a bundling of the Playstation 2 and the Eyetoy, a USB camera for party games. The combination package will cost US$199.95. Bought separately, the two devices normally cost US$260.

Xbox Microsoft seemed similarly unconcerned about the Nintendo move. PR manager Boris Schneider-Johne felt that there was no call for a similar price cut on the Xbox. His firm has plans to put together some sort of bundle for the Christmas season, likely with a family-friendly jump-n-run game, costing in the range of US$250. Such a packet would consist of the console with one controller and two games. Given that games cost US$60 on average, that represents a savings of US$70.

Like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are presuming that the coming year will see no successors for the third-generation consoles coming to market. Sony is planning to release two new products, including the so-called PSX console and a version of the PS 2 expanded to serve as a multimedia machine. The latter would have a hard drive and be able to record television programs.

Sony plans to continue its forays into the market for handheld consoles. "The Playstation Portable is expected in the second half of 2004," Gerdes announced. The device will be matched up against Nintendo's Gameboy and the N-Gage game console/cell phone combination from Nokia. A PS 3 cannot be expected before 2005 at the earliest, Gerdes reports.

For its part, Microsoft plans on using the coming year to concentrate on its online gaming platform Xbox live. "We want to network the online gaming world with cell phones and handhelds very soon," explains Schneider-Johne. This would let gamers keep up to date on things like the current standings for online games via text messaging. Or perhaps even the latest round of price cuts.