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.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique