Final Fantasy VII Writer: Nintendo “Digging Its Own Grave”

Masato Kato, the writer of Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears and Chrono Trigger, wrote on his Twitter (Japanese) that Nintendo’s era of ruling portable gaming is coming to a close, starting with the release of the Apple iPad.

“With the iPad going on sale, the epoch of Nintendo is finished. But with the DS and the Wii, it’s been digging its own grave.” (Translated at Kotaku.)

Being only a tweet, not much explanation has been offered on such a bold quote. When the iPad was released, our very own Eric Taylor wrote an editorial on whether or not the iPad is a gaming machine, and shortly after Apple announced the arrival of the iPhone and iPad game center. With a move like that, it’s clear that Apple knows it’s got a hand in the market, and not a small one either — Apple’s share of the gaming market was 5% in 2009. That may sound small, but it’s definitely enough to snag quite a bit of attention from the big players.

Apple and Nintendo have a lot of things in common. To start, they’re my two favorite companies in the world. More importantly, they’re both competing for shares in the casual gaming market, which Microsoft and Sony aren’t (not really). However, Apple’s got the upper hand in a big way: any Joe Schmoe with an iPad can buy a game, even if they’re not willing to buy a dedicated mobile gaming machine like the DS. With 2 million iPad users in 60 days, Apple could seriously cut into the market, and Nintendo’s not unaware.

What’s Nintendo got? Well, Mario and his buddies, and of course, fanboys (myself included); Apple’s also got fanboys (myself … also included). Really, this is a fight I never wanted to see happen, but alas. These two will duke it out in the casual market over the coming years, and there can only be one winner.

Personally, I’d go for a Nintendo game any day, but that’s just me. What about you, Ranters? Who’s side do you pick? Or are you like me, who thinks this fight was just never meant to be?

Source: Kotaku