Nintendo Co, the world's biggest maker of portable game consoles, begins selling its newest hand-held player today, accompanied by a US$40 million advertising push aimed at taking customers away from Sony Corp.
The ads for Kyoto-based Nintendo's biggest-ever product introduction emphasize the dual screens on its new Nintendo DS player. Other ads promote the DS's touch screen and voice recognition capabilities, which can be used to control game characters.
PHOTO: AP
The DS is at the center of video-game maker Nintendo's push to defend its dominance of the US$4 billion hand-held game market as Tokyo-based Sony prepares to enter portable gaming for the first time. The DS reaches stores in the US in time for Christmas. Sony's Portable PlayStation, or PSP, goes on sale Dec. 12 in Japan and next year in the US.
"Sony is going to take some business in the hand-held arena, which has been virtually monopolized by Nintendo up until this point," said Jay Defibaugh an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo. "Nintendo's marketing in the US is clearly skewed up demographically, which is what Sony is after."
With commercials built around the tagline "Touching is Good" and the DS's double screens, Nintendo's executives are putting a different face on a company known better for Donkey Kong and Mario the Plumber than for sex appeal.
The DS commercials, which run between episodes of "The Simpsons" on News Corp's Fox network and Viacom Inc's "South Park," are ``more provocative than the work you've maybe seen to date,'' Reginald Fils-Aimes, executive vice president of Nintendo's Redmond, Washington-based US unit, said in an interview. The DS is "less of a toy and more of a high-end consumer electronic device."
As part of Nintendo's push to market the silver-colored DS among older gamers -- as well as the under-16 crowd that comprises half the company's customer base -- Nintendo has teamed up with retailers such as Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp, Gamespot.com, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us Inc to organize demonstrations showing off the DS's features, Fils-Aime said.
Black, silver and white packaging, and a game lineup ranging from Electronic Arts Inc's "Madden NFL" to "Super Mario Brothers" means the device may appeal to older gamers as well as a younger audience, Fils-Aime said.
Nintendo will sell the DS for US$149.99 in the US and ?15,000 in Japan, the most it has ever charged for a hand-held. Sony's PSP will be priced at ?19,800 (US$190) in Japan. Adding peripherals such as a memory card, AC adaptor and battery pack will boost the PSP's price to ?24,000 in Japan. Sony hasn't set a US retail price.
Advance demand for the DS is outstripping supply by about 2-to-1 in both Japan and the US, Nintendo says. The company, which plans to ship 2 million units to both markets by the end of the year, will extend DS production to a third site in China to meet demand.
The DS's release in the US today is timed for the holiday season when the company gets 40 percent of its sales, said Redmond-based Beth Llewelyn, spokeswoman for Nintendo of America.
Not to be outdone, Sony has erected PSP displays in train stations throughout Tokyo, mirroring the company's campaign for its PSX combination game console and DVD recorder last year. Each PSP is displayed behind a clear plastic case. Uniformed guards prevent passersby from touching the devices.
Sony executives say the PSP will have the same graphics capabilities as its best-selling PlayStation 2 console. PSP will also have a wireless connection and the ability to play movies and music from an optical disc designed specially by Sony for the PSP player.
Sony said last month it expects to sell 500,000 PSPs in Japan by the end of the year. The company won't say how much it will spend to advertise the console.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS