Nintendo US boss Reggie Fils-Aime has claimed that inexpensive mobile phone games are one of the biggest risks to the games industry today.

Defending the price of Nintendo 3DS games, Fils-Aime said: "I acatually think that one of the biggest risks today in our gaming industry are these inexpensive games that are disposable from a consumer standpoint."

Fils-Aime was speaking as Angry Birds was announced for Wii and DS but NOA's US President argued that the popular iPhone game stands out from the crowd.

"Angry Birds is a great experience but that is one compared to thousands of other pieces of content that for one and two dollars actually create a mentality for the consumer that a piece of gaming content should only be two dollars," he said. "I think that some of these games are overpriced for one or two dollars."

He went on to justify the price of 3DS games in America, saying: "The fact of the matter is that we create compelling content. We're an entertainment company and we believe that 35-40 dollars for a great piece of Nintendo 3DS content is an appropriate price."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/28 ... ry-reggie/

If you honestly believe that, learn from it then

Most people baulk at spending $40 or its equivalent for a game. I certainly do. I will pay it for something of the quality of Starcraft but not for every game. A £1 iPhone/iPad game is great for the odd game. If you really like it then you can get another and another. I like to view entertainment in terms of cost per hour. If a game costs £1 and lasts a few hours that is still good value when compared to £22 for a cinema ticket in the west end of London. Starcraft has lasted me hundreds of hours of game play and so its cost per hour is now down in the pennies per hour range. That is good value. Most games do not generate that much in longevity and so are not worth it.

inexpensive games are a threat to the gaming industry
no $hite sherlock, maybe the gaming industry needs to update its MO ...

Inexpensive "good" games are a threat to the cookie cutter big name games franchises that fail to deliver.

I think £40 for a game is far too much. I rarely buy games new these days - I’m far happier to wait for them to turn up second hand or in the “Platinum” range where they are a more affordable £20 or so. I made an exception for Gran Turismo - but only because Morrisons were discounting it.

The game industry needs to realise that it’s not Hollywood. What I like about the iPhone/iPad type games is that they can be made by anyone, which is good. I remember when games were routinely written by kids in the bedrooms on BBC Micros and ZX Spectrums. That’s a tradition that needs revisiting.

I remember Sony having a go at that with the original PS1 (The Yakoze development hardware or something?), some of the games were given away on demo discs with mags

I agree on both points. I have only bought two full priced games in 5 years, the rest cheapos off ebay or elsewhere.

Games need to be cheap to make the numbers to recover costs. Only a few big budget games will be money spinners the rest like the movie industry will lose money. When games were cheaper to make they still had to work within pocket money prices and few kids have pocket money of £50.

I'd only ever spend £40 on a game at most (apart from special editions; I bought the signature edition of GT5 for £130).

For handheld consoles, the prices need to be cheap enough to take a punt on the game. 60p from iTunes can provide more entertainment than £40 game for nintendo ds. I think with mobile phones growing to such sizes, the handheld console is under threat.

Sony are certainly leaning that way with the PSP2...

I agree that portable console games are at threat, and the consoles themselves. It does screw up the Sony business model.