Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says the company doesn't want "thousands upon thousands" of games on its DSi download store, unlike Apple's iPhone strategy.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.comApple might have thousands of games in the iPhone's App Store, but that sort of abundance is not appealing to Nintendo.
As the Japanese gamemaker prepares to launch its latest portable player, the Nintendo DSi, in America, the company says it won't be filling up the DSi's download store with "thousands upon thousands" of games. Instead, DSiWare games and applications will focus on quality over quantity, says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.
"We are taking a film-festival approach — high-class content done by knowledgeable developers in creating fantastic experiences for the consumer — instead of the YouTube approach of everything under the sun that is difficult for the consumer to navigate through," said Fils-Aime in a phone interview with Wired.com.
When DSi launches Sunday, five games will be available in the store in four price tiers: free, $2, $5 and $8. Every downloadable game that launches with the system will be published by Nintendo, although Fils-Aime said several games and apps from third parties will be available within six weeks of launch. On Wii, downloadable games from external developers have outsold Nintendo's own software by a factor of nine to one, Fils-Aime said.
The $170 DSi also features a camera and a web browser, and can use an SD card to store photos, games and music. It plays the same lineup of cartridge-based games as the current model, the $130 Nintendo DS Lite.
Fils-Aime said that once Nintendo has granted a third-party developer a license to create DSiWare, it will not put any restraints on the company's creativity — although Nintendo strongly suggests to developers that they create "innovative, involving" experiences that are "unique to the platform."
"What we don't want to see is a game that is available on a number of other platforms, either mobile or home, nor do we want to see games that don't take advantage of the unique capabilities of the DS," said Fils-Aime.
In Japan, where DSi launched last November, the DSiWare store has more than 50 games and applications thus far. This stands in sharp contrast to the iPhone's App Store, which gets an average of more than 150 new applications per day.
"We want a more limited number of breakthrough applications and games, not a litany of thousands upon thousands of applications that really don't excite the consumer very much," said Fils-Aime.
Wired.com's full Q&A with Reggie Fils-Aime will be online later this week.
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