Nintendo Co, the world's biggest maker of handheld video-game players, said a shortage of its DS portable video-game players in Japan may ease next month as the company adds more production capacity.
"I'm hopeful in the latter half of April we can get rid of the terrible, terrible shortage situation that we are facing with the Nintendo DS right now," President Satoru Iwata said in an interview on Thursday at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Current demand is "unpredictable," said Iwata, who spoke through a translator.
Demand for the device is being fueled by consumers who aren't gamers and want to play Nintendo's puzzle games, Iwata said. Satisfying customers looking to purchase the DS, which allows people to play games by touching one of its two screens, will be critical for Nintendo as rival Sony Corp adds features such as a new Web browser to its PlayStation Portable.
Kyoto-based Nintendo, which has sold more than 6 million DS handhelds in Japan since it was introduced in December 2004, earlier this month introduced a smaller version of the DS, called the DS Lite. Nintendo will release the DS Lite in the US, Iwata said, declining to give a date or price.
Nintendo, whose games include the characters Donkey Kong and Mario, plans to release its next games console for televisions, called Revolution, this year, Iwata said.
Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software maker, began selling its Xbox 360 game console in November. Sony on March 15 said its PlayStation 3 game device will be available worldwide this November.
Iwata said that unlike Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo doesn't plan to release the Revolution globally at the same time.
"We don't think it's necessary to do the simultaneous worldwide launch simply because others are doing this," he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS