Inafune envisions a future where portable gaming consoles and Smartphones coexist

When Nintendo president Satoru Iwata delivered the keynote back in March at this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, he spoke of the "commoditization" of gaming, and the resultant devaluing of games. But given his position as head of a company leading the charge in the dedicated gaming portable market, it was difficult to see past his highly vested interests in this stance. To put it more bluntly, Iwata is a man who relies on people buying his portable console's games for $30 to $40, and thusly his ideas on the subject are tainted by his own vested interests.

But when Mega Man creator and ex-Capcom head of production Keiji Inafune feels similarly, we can't help but take note. I asked him during an interview this week at the Tokyo Game Show how he felt about Mr. Iwata's keynote, and if the Nintendo 3DS -- as well as the PlayStation Vita -- stand a chance against the rise of the Smartphone.

"I think it's very similar between cell phone cameras and professional digital cameras [DSLRs]. You don't use a Smartphone camera for an interview, and you don't use a really professional camera to take some small pictures when you're going to work," he told me, drawing a comparison between the DSLR my colleague was holding and the iPhone 4 I was recording the interview with. "I think that's the same thing that happens with game consoles as well," he continued. "If you want to play a good game, you get a PS3 or Xbox or that kind of thing. You don't stay on your iPhone or on a Smartphone game for three or five hours, nobody would do that. So I think the needs difference is happening here."

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/17/in...nsoles-and-sm/