Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken a starkly different stance than others in his industry when asked about slowing software sales, citing lack of innovation instead of piracy as the main cause.
The executive was posed the question during a call about the company’s revised financial forecast, which was revised to the downside thanks to slow software sales on both the DS and Wii.
Both consoles have just about hit saturation on the global scale.
Singling out an individual game, Iwata says innovative hits like “Art Academy” have sold well everywhere, including in nations where piracy has ravaged sales.
One such country is Spain, which is infamous for piracy levels that far exceed other Western European neighbors.
“Nintendo DS software could not make it to the hit software sales chart in the country for sometime,” Iwata said, via GI. “However, when we launched the Nintendo DS software Art Academy in Europe this summer, which shows you how to draw pictures, it was ranked number one on the software sales chart covering all the videogame platforms in Spain. If one software can attract many people and can become a social topic, that software can sell regardless of piracy.”
Of course, Iwata made sure to make it clear that piracy is indeed a problem, just not the biggest problem.
“As a responsibility of the platform holder, we will tackle piracy. For example, when we launch new hardware, such as Nintendo 3DS, it is a good opportunity to beef up the countermeasures, and we are actually working on that now. On the other hand, I do not think we should attribute bad software sales solely to piracy. Even with piracy, as long as we can create products which can attract attention from many consumers and which can greatly entertain them, that software can make it to the number one position of the hit software sales chart, “ he concluded.
Result for: new hardware
Thanks to a tweet from a Japanese product designer, we have a new rumored Nintendo 3DS release date, at least for Japan.
Reads the tweet (translated by 3DSblog): “On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale simultaneously. Those of you buying the 3DS, please buy them while you’re at it! This will be officially announced on the homepage eventually, lol. Best regards.”
That designer works for keysfactory, an accessory maker that has built screen protectors, cases and chargers for the DS line.
The date is still speculation for now, but Nintendo has promised to unveil the pricing and release date for the handheld on September 29th.
In the past, Nintendo has released new hardware on Saturdays, so the 20th of November seems even more possible.
The DSi XL was released on Saturday, November 21st, last year.
Result for: new hardware
In a move that should send waves through the torrent community, the under-the-radar private torrent tracker SceneTorrents has officially closed, after over four years of being open.
The NFO of the site’s final torrent reads as follows:
“By now most of you already know that ScT will be going offline permanently.
However, due to pending legal issues, we are not at liberty to speak freely about why we’ve chosen to take down the site. Members of our staff were arrested and will be undergoing the entire length of the judicial process. Obviously, in the case of criminal proceedings, it would be downright foolish to comment any further on the situation;
Please bear this in mind and wish them the best of luck.
There have been several theories as to where the donation money (of the recent months) has gone. We’d like to take this opportunity to put all skepticism to rest.
The money was used to purchase new hardware that would ensure our spot as the fastest tracker on the net.
You are free to perform whatever calculations you feel necessary, but in doing so it should become very clear that running a site of this stature costs money. We feel the overwhelming cynicism is just a product of bad timing compounded with general frustration caused by the current situation.
We sincerely hope that you’ve enjoyed being a part of our wonderful community over the past 4 1/2 years. We’ve certainly enjoyed our members letting us be of service. We’ve always felt our user base played an equally important role in making SceneTorrents.org a model environment in the torrent world.
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