3DS “not going to be competing” on mobile game prices, says Nintendo

By Johnny Cullen

Nintendo’s Hideki Konno has said that it will not “be competing” with standard mobile game prices with 3DS.

Konno, who was the project lead on the creation of the handheld, said in a Gamasutra interview that it was value over price as far as it was concerned.

“So now in terms of one dollar games, or free games, or whatever that is out there in the market, I mean, really, we’re not going to be competing with that,” he said.

“We’re not going to try to match that; we’re just going to continually strive to not just maintain, but increase, the quality of the entertainment that we’re providing, and let it sort itself out.

“Again, we’re not worried about competing at a price point level.”

Konno added that he believed the view wasn’t just exclusive to Nintendo.

“I believe that’s more than likely Sony and Microsoft’s opinion on that as well,” he said.

“Now of course as a customer, if somebody said to me, ‘Hey, we’ve got Call of Duty on your portable device and it’s only going to cost you 100 yen,’ yeah, I’d be super stoked, really excited about that.

“And I’d be really excited to see a great game at a really cheap price, but I just don’t think that you could make a game that’s immersive and as big as, let’s say Call of Duty, or any other large title, and sell it at that price point; it’s just not possible.”

3DS launches this Friday in the UK and Europe. It’ll release this Sunday in the US. Read our full comprehensive list of both launches by Keza MacDonald here.

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