Nintendo is preparing to unleash the full force of its development and marketing artillery against Apple after profits tumbled at the Japanese giant for the first time in six years.
The reversal of fortunes, though flagged in advance by the company, throws the spotlight on threats to what once seemed a bulletproof business.
Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory already won and to treat Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the “enemy of the future” .
That, say analysts, may be premature. Last Christmas, almost twice as many Wii consoles were sold in the US as the PlayStation3. But games developers increasingly see Sony’s machine as having a large enough base of users to justify not making titles for the Nintendo machine.
Sony and Microsoft are also making their own forays into family-oriented gaming and the iPhone has emerged as a formidable competitor for Nintendo in the handheld gaming arena once dominated by the DS console.
Sources close to the Kyoto-based company describe a mood of concern as the hardware and software divisions race to restore the capacity to “surprise” — a traditional feature of Nintendo games that Mr Iwata holds dear.
