What Apple Can Teach Nintendo and Sony (Part. 1)

By : Darren Gladstone, PC World

Nintendo, Sony: Let's talk for a sec--just you and me. Look, guys, over the past couple of years, you've had a great run. Nintendo, your DS has tons of games, a wide variety of unique stuff that's a blast to play. Sony, your PSP is a gadget-lover's gaming tool, with everything from Skype to Internet-radio support (oh, yeah, and you have some cool games, as well). But unless you both do something in 2009, the iPhone and iPod Touch will soon become the top dogs in handheld gaming.


Apple, the same folks who have pretty much ignored games since I played Marathon on a Mac, came on strong in 2008--and now Nintendo and Sony must consider the iPhone a legit competitor. The proof: Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch games start at a buck (going up as high as $10), and games have flooded Apple's App Store since it opened its digital doors in July.

Nobody at either company has asked, but here's my free advice.

Nintendo DSNintendo: Get that new DSi to the United States, on the double! The bigger screens and the 256MB of memory are a good start, but we need to see a Wiiware-style channel where people can easily download DS games directly onto their handheld no matter where they are, stat! Also, while I'm mentioning it, set it up so that we can run said downloaded games directly from SD Card. Another quick thought: Don't try to out iPhone the iPhone. If you're going to build in MP3 functionality, maybe you should at least support the MP3 file format. (AAC only? Really?)

Source : http://www.pcworld.com