Fils-Aime: Apple more threatening than Microsoft
Nintendo of American boss also sees competition with Zynga, net use and newspapers
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime believes Apple to be the biggest current threat to Nintendo's dominance of console sales.
"Do I think that in the near term they can hurt us more than Microsoft?" Fils-Aime told Forbes. "Absolutely."Fils-Aime felt that the key advantage which Nintendo had over Apple, which sold over 14 million iPhones in the quarter ending September, 2010, is the content which its systems offer. He claimed that although games like Angry Birds offer fun in short bursts, he himself had spent over 150 hours playing Dragon Quest IX.
The key resource which Nintendo is pitching for, Fils-Aime believes, is time. "I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaper."
Recently, THQ's UK marketing director John Rooke told GamesIndustry.biz that he expected there to be a sales run on Wii and DS this Christmas, much as there was in 2009.
"It's one of those challenges that everyone forgets - what's happened before. The Wii is behaving a bit more like a toy - people get it out at Christmas, start playing with it again."