Rivals close in on Nintendo
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: Some corporate news this morning. Exxon Mobil profits dropped about 65 percent last quarter. Procter & Gamble sees a better sales outlook, though, for the rest of this year. And Nintendo says its profits were cut in half. Seems the Wii video game is not quite as hot now, as Marketplace’s Ashley Milne-Tyte reports
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Nintendo’s rivals have been closing in. Michael Gartenberg is with Interpret, a technology market research firm. He says Microsoft and Sony are adding all sorts of functions to their devices.
Michael Gartenberg: So for example Microsoft’s Xbox now does things like Twitter. It does things like Netflix, so I can stream movies directly from that.
He says in a down economy, consumers are more likely to look at game consoles and ask, “What else can they do?” He says Nintendo needs to gear up on the marketing front for the holidays. And it has to convince consumers the core gaming experience alone is worth paying for.
I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
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