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 10 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 believes 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 fans 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 manufacturer 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 also 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.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS