Nintendo have announced that they plan to announce a new game product next year. The statement was made during a briefing on Nintendo's new business strategy. It seems that part of Nintendo's strategy is to blame Sony and their PSP announcement for their current woes. Although tight with the new products details, President Satoru Iwata told the news conference We are preparing a new product which will be surprising and unique...
Speculation on what exactly this new product may be ranges from the ridiculous to the borderline plausible. Recent rumours of a possible Spring 2005 release for the GameCube successor, codenamed N5, suggest that the new device may arrive faster than initially expected. It is another of Iwata's statements however, which points to something else. He said Basically Sony's multi-function handheld device will not have a big impact on our business, but we are, whether Sony releases a new product or not, preparing for our future...and we'll be able to tell you specifics next spring. This statement points to some GBA related device even though any guess as to its exact nature would be too risky at this time.
Iwata also announced a loyalty reward scheme, aimed to boost GameCube hardware and software sales. Club Nintendo will allow the byers of Nintendo software to accumulate points in a scheme similar to Air Miles.
We'll begin the new programme in Japan and the United States by the end of this year. We aim to have 300,000-500,000 users sign up for the programme in the first year claims Iwata.
Iwata also said Nintendo plan to boost software development by increasing collaborations with external software developers although, he denied any plans for further studio acquisitions.
In the fringes of that press conference Iwata also announced three new Nintendo titles which herals a return to the classic game recipe for the company. A GameCube version of the Wario Ware, Inc., a Donkey Kong game by Namco and a new Zelda adventure expected before Q4, 2004 make up the list.
With F-Zero GX, the classic arcade racer remake, about to go gold it is certainly turning out to be a busy time for Nintendo developers.