Do Nintendo’s future portable plans involve free 3G wireless for everyone? Not quite, but close, if a new report out today is any indication.
Nintendo is looking at the business model of Amazon’s Kindle as it considers the future for its portable consoles, the company’s president said yesterday.
“I’m interested because it’s a new business model in which the user doesn’t bear the communications cost,” said Satoru Iwata . [Financial Times]
Like the Kindle, access would be paid for upfront, included in the cost of the device, and players would be able to download content over the 3G wireless network without paying additional fees. Unlike the Kindle and eBooks in general, I can see this working out in the long term.
DS 3G, anyone?
The sounds pretty good, I like the idea behind it, but I hope it doesn't come out anytime soon because I just got my DSi =P lol. Maybe in 2 or 3 years.
It would be harder with Nintendo since even the smallest games are monsters in storage size when compared to ebooks. There would need to be a huge fee paid upfront.
@ srkelly
True, while e-books & pdfs are usually a few megs max, a DS file can range anywhere from 12 to 128 megabytes in size. Still, imagine the possibility of say, using 3G for say, Wi-Fi gaming. Besides, I'd hate to see Nintendo go down the road of direct download (as the only option I mean).
Please say this is true, especially if the network is robust enough to let us game online – on the move.
@ Jaime
Yeah, I would LOVE if this were the case. It would eliminate the need for wardriving when I'm out of the house.
it'd better still have Wi-Fi, 'cause cell phone networks don't work where i live.
that would be awesome