LOS ANGELES - Riding the success of its
popular Wii video game console, Nintendo Co Ltd unveiled fresh titles for gamers to throw frisbees and
rock on, while rival Sony Corp turned to Hollywood
with a new video service.
At back-to-back news conferences on Tuesday at the E3 video
game industry trade show in Los Angeles, Nintendo and Sony
unveiled their different approaches to the market.
Industry leader Nintendo struck a confident note and stayed
with its winning formula -- easy-to-play games for the
mainstream audience. Sony, the once dominant market force,
showed how the PlayStation 3 could do more by introducing a new
video service.
The company said it would rent and sell movies and TV shows
over the Internet for the PlayStation 3 and double the hard
drive capacity of its main PS3 model.
The new video distribution service will attempt to close
the gap with Microsoft's Xbox Live service and feature movies
and TV shows from major studios, including its own Sony
Pictures, Warner Bros. and News Corp's NWSa.N 20th Century
Fox.
Sony's online network has failed to keep pace with Xbox
Live, Microsoft Corp's MSFT.O online service that gives the
Xbox 360 console an advantage over the PS3, said Billy Pidgeon,
an analyst at research firm IDC.
"Longer term, Microsoft is better positioned. What it's
doing with Live will have better long term effects," he added.
Sony dominated the global video game industry for a decade
starting in the mid-1990s. But the PS3, its latest console, has
lagged Nintendo's Wii, and in recent months has been competing
neck and neck with Microsoft Corp's MSFT.O Xbox 360 for
second place in the United States.
Microsoft declared on Monday it was certain the Xbox 360
would sell more units over its lifetime than the PS3.
But both companies have not been able to derail the success
of Nintendo's Wii, which has bested more powerful machines from
Sony and Microsoft with a cheaper console and its
motion-sensing controller that can be swung like a bat or a
sword.
"A true paradigm shift has taken place in the global games
market," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said at its news
conference.
The firm has broadened the gaming market well beyond
hard-core video gamers and expects to gain more adopters with
its new "Wii Music" game, which allows players to simulate
playing more than 60 instruments using its controllers.
Nintendo also introduced a more sensitive Wii MotionPlus
controller add-on to debut next spring, along with a new suite
of Wii sports games.
"Wii Sports Resort" lets users throw a frisbee to a virtual
dog or duel one another with swords.
UNDERWHELMING
Many Nintendo fans at the presentation cheered politely
while legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto played a virtual
saxophone on "Wii Music," but some analysts were not impressed
with Nintendo's new software line-up.
"We are distinctly underwhelmed by Nintendo's presentation
today," Hiroshi Kamide, analyst at KBC Securities, wrote in a
note to clients.
"The line-up for Christmas 2008 currently looks
inadequate."
As expected, Nintendo did not announce a price cut since
its Wii consoles are still in short supply at many retailers.
On Sunday, Microsoft cut the price of its best-selling Xbox
360 Pro model game console with a 20-gigabyte hard drive to
$299 from $349. Microsoft plans to phase out that model,
replacing it with a new Xbox 360 model with a 60-gigabyte hard
drive for $349.
Sony announced a similar strategy. It plans to launch in
September a PS3 game console with an 80-gigabyte hard drive for
$399, the same price as the PS3 with a 40-gigabyte hard drive.
It will eventually phase out the smaller hard-drive PS3
machine and make the 80-gigabyte version its mainstay model as
it focuses on making the console a home entertainment hub,
capable of storing downloaded movies and games, it said.
(Additional reporting by Kemp Powers and Daisuke Wakabayashi;
Editing by Jennifer Tan)
By: Kiyoshi Takenaka and Jennifer Martinez
Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for Restrictions
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