Sub-£20 DS Games Revealed

Muumuu president seemingly lets slip.

Posted by Staff
Muumuu president Yukihito Morikawa has seemingly let slip Nintendo’s projected pricing of its DS software in a recent entry on the developer’s company website.

Morikawa-san claims that Nintendo will offer the games at Japanese retail for 3,800 yen - under £19 – a price he feels will be too high given the kind of software he hints is at the forefront of most developers’ minds.

"I heard from a producer that a few DS projects going on in his company are deadlocked," says Morikawa in his diary. "There are a lot of new things that can be done [with the touch-sensitive screen] such as making hand drawn characters fight with each other or transforming a 3D object with the use of the stylus. You can bang with the stylus, dig holes, chip away things...it's easy to come up with those kinds of small ideas, and the DS is a superb hardware in that sense." He continues, "But, those kinds of ideas are too small to fit in a 3,800 yen cartridge, which is why developers are deadlocked. It's difficult to expand on those types of small ideas, in the same way a short story will not become a good novel if you bloat it up with unnecessary ideas."

Interestingly, Morikawa-san does not mention the argument that such a small retail price may squeeze developers’ financial restraints, resulting in studios working on software for a portable market that not too long ago would have merited a full home console time-frame and roster.

Comments

Kaxxx 19 Jul 2004 10:31
1/6
Maybe for Japan but will these games or prices ever see the light of day in the UK or US?

Doubtful if you ask me!
TigerUppercut 19 Jul 2004 10:50
2/6
Kaxxx wrote:

>Maybe for Japan but will these games or prices
>ever see the light of day in the UK or US?
>
>Doubtful if you ask me!

Agreed. Though Japanese developers will be focussing on creating software which must hit retail at this point - remember that Nintendo, distribution and retail will all take their cuts, not leaving a great deal left for the developer...
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YenRug 19 Jul 2004 13:05
3/6
TigerUppercut wrote:
>Agreed. Though Japanese developers will be
>focussing on creating software which must hit
>retail at this point - remember that Nintendo,
>distribution and retail will all take their cuts,
>not leaving a great deal left for the
>developer...

But how much of this price reduction, compared to GBA, is down to the lower cost of DS card production? GBA carts are fairly expensive items to make, so you might find this price leaves developers and publishers with the same amount of return.
almondVanHelsing 19 Jul 2004 19:01
4/6
I don't think we will see sub £20 games in the UK, nor sub 30 euro games in the rest of Europe. We are more likely to see £25-£30 and 30-45 Euro games, as this is what the market is used to, this is what we will be charged. I expect the same price ranges for the PSP too, maybe higher.

I understand what Morikawa-san says with regard to expanding small ideas into full games. This is always a problem, even with home console games. Look at Blinx, "we can control time", good small idea, bad game since otherwise it is a normal platformer. Even Super Mario Sunshine wasn't such a good game as Mario64, but it had the gimmik of cleaning up and the backpacks.

I was initially (very) suspicious of the DS, since I couldn't see how the small ideas of touch screen, two screens microphone, etc could be turned into full games. After a while I thought of some ways games could be done, helped by people here, but now I hear that games in the innovative developers of Japan are stuck, I have to think again.

Maybe Nintendo have given developers too many options for new ideas and they are stuck trying to use them all?
Pandaman 19 Jul 2004 20:10
5/6
Nuts...let me get my pounds to dollers chart out again.
Kaxxx 20 Jul 2004 07:07
6/6
AVH wrote:
>Maybe Nintendo have given developers too many options for new ideas and they are stuck trying to use them all?

I couldnt agree with you more. The DS definetly seems like a bit of a mish-mash of ideas. The stylus idea puts me off a little more there is some interesting content there.

The UK will never see handheld games at £20 and under. Except when game decide to have a sale. All the UK retailers will hike the price back up anyway.
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