Apple and Nintendo partnership?

johnsocal · November 30, 2004 5:51PM

I'm speculating that Apple and Nintendo have already formed a partnership to create 2 new products in 2005 and 2006.

The first product would be a special version of Apples upcoming flash-based Ipod that would be designed to fit in the 2nd slot on Nintendos new DS portable. This would allow the Nintendo DS to be connected to either Macs or PCS to download and play music of course.

The 2nd product would comeout in 2006 to compete with MS's upcoming xbox-next-pc that for those who havent heard the rumor is that it will be a TV-top media player version of next-gen xbox in one system (it is rumored there will be 3 versions of next-gen xbox- 1 without HD, 1 with HD, and 1 media pc/xbox) .

This pc/xbox combo with be a complete specialized PC with a next-gen xbox bulit-in and will support HDTV, wireless keyboard, mouse, and theres a good chance that MS will expand xbox-live to also offer Music (like itunes) for download. I think Apple and Nintendo will make an OSX TV-top media player (headless emac/imac) with a next-gen Nintendo game system built-in to compete head-on with the most expensive version of MS's next gen x-box.

So there will be two versions of Nintendos next-gen game system. One that will be a low priced game system only and another more expensive unit that will be a joint venture between Apple and Nintendo.

cubist · November 30, 2004 6:06PM

Is there any evidence that the two have worked together at all, ever? Personally I think a music player/PDA add-on capability for the DS would be great. I look at it and, for $149, I think it's too expensive for what it does (especially considering how expensive the games are). Similarly, I look at the iPod, and I think it's too expensive for what it does. But a combo of the two might be worth it - especially if I can download games from the iTunes Games Store.

Realistically, though, nothing ever comes close to its potential, and we can expect to be disappointed.

johnsocal · November 30, 2004 6:18PM

Having an $99 Apple Itunes flash-player for the Nintendo DS would help the DS have some street cred for being a music player and this would help Apple get itunes into the hands of younger kids.

If Apple could keep the media-mac price down around $499-$599 it could help Apple get OSX, itunes, iphoto, imovie in more households by leveraging the different stengths of Apple and Nintendo.

t'hain esh kelch · November 30, 2004 7:10PM

Excuse me, but:

*Ahrem*

Not gonna happen. Apple wont end out making small add-ons for other companys products, especially not in the sub-100$ range!

Back in the old days there were lots of speculation on a SNES-emulator-card build-in in the old performaes. But you know how that went..

slughead · November 30, 2004 10:05PM

Jobs hates games.

Besides, we all know ipods are like the imac: totally underpowered in the video department when it comes to gaming.

A more plausible scheme would be for the iMac to have a cartridge slot for nintendo advanced games

Ah who am I kidding, it'd probably be too underpowered to run those games either

nowayout11 · November 30, 2004 10:30PM

Nintendo's made it pretty clear that their interest is games, games, games.

Not sure I understand the first product. Why require a DS to play the music? Wouldn't this flash ipod play the music itself? Are you basically referring to some sort of flash-to-GBA slot adapter that just stores the music?

I could see that as a viable accessory to the DS, but I'm not sure what Apple would want to do with it. Even at a theoretical $99 they might as well get a standalone flash player that would be smaller than the DS. But some kind of DS music accessory would be interesting, though.

For the second idea, I think Sony would try to compete with MS for the whole livingroom space before Nintendo would. Sony has more to lose.

ipodandimac · November 30, 2004 10:42PM

wow people seem obsessed about that stupid nintendo ds system.

johnsocal · November 30, 2004 11:56PM

The bottom touch-screen on the DS can be used to fake the ipod dial and if the flash memory was large enough it could also be used to download GBA games (not DS games) off itunes with Nintendos authorization.

netbanshee · December 1, 2004 9:53AM

I really don't see a partnership forming between the two companies, regardless of some of their similar methods and philosophies. Sure convergence is the name of the game and strategic alliances help to get tech out and into our hands, but I don't see it happening in this instance. I wouldn't be surprised if peripheral manufacturers extend the capabilities of the DS much farther and into the arenas that are being talked about. Look at the prior GameBoy additions for some examples.

AFA people not seeing the point in the DS, keep in mind that Nintendo has outsold by far any kind of gaming machine ever made, let alone handhelds. The DS is an addition to their line-up (read: not an advanced replacement) and packs with it interesting functionality that innovates handhelds and game design beyond the foresight of other manufacturers in their industry. They also understand what people want, could and should do with their hands... something that may not be fundamentally understood with say the $200-300 PSP. You want pocket video without the fuss (cartridges, proprietary media, etc.) look at the Archos players talked about in the other thread floating around. You want a fun 15min - 1hr experience (reasonable handheld usage) for $150, go DS.

twinbrook46636 · December 1, 2004 12:17PM

Nintendo who?

audiopollution · December 1, 2004 12:52PM

Industry speculation was that Nintendo and Microsoft were going to team up for the XBox 2. That was a long time ago, though. It's now been made clear that Nintendo will be continuing to produce game systems on their own.

zpapasmurf · December 1, 2004 4:14PM

Quote:

They also understand what people want, could and should do with their hands... something that may not be fundamentally understood with say the $200-300 PSP.

Retail launch price for psp is $199 for just the psp unit, no memory stick.

johnsocal · December 1, 2004 6:01PM

The codename for nintendo's new console to be released Christmas of 2006 is "revolution" and its going to use the almost the same processor like the G5 so it wouldn't be that hard of a stretch for apple to build-in the Nintendos game system into some sort of media-mac and share resources.

d3ct · December 1, 2004 6:35PM

i dont really see this happening... but

i really wish it would, or at least a partnership

i love both nintendo and apple, theyr both honorable companies who stick to their guns and it would be an incredible partnership, theyr both innovative and true at heart companies

irene · December 1, 2004 6:54PM

Why Nintendo?

Why not Atari

tuttle · December 1, 2004 7:07PM

Quote:

Originally posted by johnsocal

its going to use the almost the same processor like the G5 so it wouldn't be that hard of a stretch for apple to build-in the Nintendos game system into some sort of media-mac and share resources.

I don't know why this keeps coming up over and over again.

The fact that both Apple and Nintendo happen to use PPC chips is of absolutely no relevance to games running on each other's respective hardware.

tink · December 1, 2004 9:13PM

Quote:

Originally posted by johnsocal

... its going to use the almost the same processor like the G5 .....

The next Playstation and XBox will also be using PowerPC derivatives that are most likely as similar to the G5 as this processor is. So........

netbanshee · December 1, 2004 11:27PM

In regards to the price points for the DS and the PSP, the $150 for the DS is the initial price Nintendo intends to begin selling them at. The price is expected to drop in the near term since the PSP is rumored at dropping to $200 to compete against the rival's handheld. The PSP was going to be sold for more until just recently.

I'm kind of curious about the next generation chipsets a bit myself. Apparently the Cell processor is based on the Power architecture and as far as I've seen, the chips in all new console are all PPC's. Whatever IBM will be placing in all of these machines, there should be some layer of compatibility to be found on some level. Whether or not it can be exploited for other means remains to be seen.

lunchable food product · December 1, 2004 11:59PM

Wouldn't it be funny if in about 2007, games that are written for all these IBM PPC variant consoles are ported to Mac first, before being ported to PC?

Well, I can dream.

zpapasmurf · December 2, 2004 7:28AM

Quote:

In regards to the price points for the DS and the PSP, the $150 for the DS is the initial price Nintendo intends to begin selling them at.

They started selling them at that price about 2 weeks ago.

I got one.

Its awsome.

I highly suggest everyone try it.

slughead · December 2, 2004 9:31AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lunchable Food Product

Wouldn't it be funny if in about 2007, games that are written for all these IBM PPC variant consoles are ported to Mac first, before being ported to PC?

Well, I can dream.

oh lord for the last time, instruction set doesn't matter, only OS matters!

You can just recompile a program (hit a button) for a different instruction set, for a different OS you have to do high-level stuff.

Thus, a console running on a PPC with Windows SUXP would run games TOTALLY incompatible with Mac OS X, despite them being compiled for PPC.

So unless you want to run Windows, ignore the instruction set on the consoles.

Apple and Nintendo partnership?

Comments