Nintendo 3DS sales have been lower than expected and the handheld has faced some scrutiny. Sony worldwide studios head Shuhei Yoshida fully expects the upcoming Sony NGP to face similar scrutiny over its pricing, but he believes Sony's done more to advance its portable product line than Nintendo has done with 3DS.
"When we were designing the NGP we had no idea what Nintendo was going to do. Aside from the 3D stereoscopic display, they seem to be keeping the same theme that they had with the DS – it feels like an update of the DS to me," Yoshida said, according to GI.biz.
On pricing, the entire traditional games industry is grappling with the impact of smartphones and inexpensive (or free) mobile apps. This isn't a challenge unique to Nintendo, even though Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has perhaps been the most vocal on the subject, going back to his GDC keynote.
"The problem is the same. We are dealing with the same issue that Nintendo is," stated Yoshida. "It's up to content publishers, including ourselves, to show people that this is worth £25 or £30 as opposed to 59p. You cannot release the same content that you put on the iPhone for a dollar on to NGP or some other consoles and expect people to pay 20 times that."
He added, "There's no one clear competitor in terms of what NGP offers. NGP's going to establish itself as the unique thing that people want to have. NGP cannot be placed against smartphones. You can't make phone calls on it and it's too big to fit into your pocket."
