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.
CALL FOR PEACE: Czech President Petr Pavel raised concerns about China’s military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait and its ‘unfriendly action’ in the South China Sea The leaders of three diplomatic allies — Guatemala, Paraguay and Palau — on Tuesday voiced support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN on the first day of the UN General Debate in New York. In his address during the 78th UN General Assembly, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr urged the UN and all parties involved in cross-strait issues to exercise restraint and seek a peaceful resolution. “The well-being and prosperity of nations and their economies are intrinsically linked to global peace and stability,” he said. He also thanked partner nations such as Taiwan, Australia, Japan and the US for providing assistance
CROSS-STRAIT CONCERNS: At the same US Congress hearing, Mira Resnick said a US government shutdown could affect weapons sales and licenses to allies such as Taiwan A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would be a “monster risk” for Beijing and likely to fail, while a military invasion would be extremely difficult, senior Pentagon officials told the US Congress on Tuesday. Growing worries of a conflict come as China has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan, holding large-scale war games simulating a blockade on the nation, while conducting near-daily warplane incursions and sending Chinese vessels around its waters. US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said a blockade would be “a monster risk for the PRC [People’s Republic of China].” “It would likely not succeed, and it
IMPORTS: Fifty-four million imported eggs with a value of more than NT$200 million had to be destroyed, mostly because they expired in storage facilities Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) last night announced that he would resign from his post. Local media on Sunday reported that Chen had resigned due to controversy over the ministry’s egg import program. Later that same evening, the Executive Yuan said that Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) had asked the minister to stay on to resolve the issue. Chen Chi-chung last night made public his decision to resign on Facebook, saying that this time he would not be dissuaded. Chen Chi-chung earlier yesterday apologized for the furor surrounding the egg import program, but added that misinformation had made the problems worse. The government was
‘HARASSMENT’: A record 103 Chinese warplanes were detected in 24 hours, posing severe challenges to security in the Taiwan Strait and the region, the ministry said Taiwan yesterday told China to stop its “destructive unilateral actions” after more than 100 Chinese warplanes and nine navy ships were detected in areas around the nation. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) described the number of warplanes detected in 24 hours as a “recent high,” while Beijing has so far refrained from issuing any official comment on the sorties. “Between the morning of September 17th to 18th, the Ministry of National Defense had detected a total of 103 Chinese aircraft, which was a recent high and has posed severe challenges to the security across the Taiwan Strait and in the region,”
RSS