That could be about to change. On Oct. 7, Nokia will stage a global launch of the N-Gage, a mobile phone that is optimized for games. Later that month, a scrappy San Francisco-based start-up called Tapwave is launching Zodiac, a gaming PDA based on the Palm operating system. And next year Sony will ship the PSP (PlayStation Portable), based on a souped-up version of the technology that powered the original PlayStation. Each of these devices is expected to cost around $300, compared with the $99 Game Boy Advance SP and the $79 Game Boy Advance. The newcomers are going after older teens and twentysomethings by offering additional features like a telephone (the N-Gage), personal-data management (the Zodiac) and built-in Wi-Fi (the PSP), along with support for music and movie playback (all three). “Life is going mobile, and the videogame aspect of it has evolved,” says Nada Ursina, general manager for N-Gage in North America. Can kid-friendly Nintendo stave off the grown-ups at its gates?
One thing in Nintendo’s favor is that game publishers are a conservative lot, and they’re very selective about which new platforms they’ll work on. Sony already has strong ties to publishers thanks to the PS2. Yet Nokia has managed to bring industry leaders like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, THQ and Eidos onboard, while Tapwave is partnering with Activision and Midway. “We see [mobile gaming] as the next hypergrowth market,” says THQ CEO Brian Farrell. Publishers like this new opportunity to reach older customers. “Right now you go to an airport terminal, and you see 8- to 12-year-olds playing their Game Boy Advance,” says Electronic Arts executive VP of North American publishing Nancy Smith. “I envision looking around next year and seeing 18- to 25-year-olds with an N-Gage or a PSP.”
Nintendo, with 34 million Game Boy Advances sold since 2001, isn’t sweating thus far. “Our biggest competition is for people’s time, whether it’s watching TV or instant messaging,” says Nintendo senior VP George Harrison. But that’s not to say that Nintendo isn’t fortifying its defenses. The Game Boy Advance SP already looks more like a pager or PDA than a gaming device. And partners like SongPro and Majesco have add-ons that will allow users to play music and movies on their Nintendo devices. Don’t say “game over” to Mario just yet.
