Mar 15
Earlier this month, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told a crowd at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, “The value of games does not matter to them. The fact is, what we produce is value, and we should protect it.” Iwata was clearly taking a shot at Angry Birds and like-minded casual titles that have helped elevate platforms like Android and the iPhone into portable gaming machines.
A number of folks immediately took Iwata to task for his comments, most notably industry analyst Michael Pachter, who told the press, “Long-term, Nintendo is doomed. He’s under full frontal assault by Apple.”
Peter Vesterbacka, the marketing head for Angry Birds creator Rovio (who, let’s face it, has never been particularly afraid to speak his mind), took a shot against console gaming in general at South by Southwest this week, stating that the industry is “dying” thanks to the rise of simpler games like Angry Birds.
Vesterbacka added that larger developers with larger budgets aren’t capable of being as nimble or innovative as smaller upstart developers like Rovio.
Come on kids, words can only get you so far. Time to break out the slingshots.
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