Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore ads been berry berry good.
Message-ID: <8269@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 89 15:34:39 GMT
References: <939@callegro.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 30

in article <939@callegro.UUCP>, allegro@sunpix.UUCP ( SunVis) says:
> Keywords: oh ye of little fath.

>  If nintendo comes out with a "REAL" computer both Atari and Commodore are
> in BIG trouble, think about it.

Not for a minute.  Nintendo used a few tricks to establish their game machine.
First of all, they got it firmly established in Japan years before they started
selling in the US or Europe.  Next, they made it impossible, or nearly so, for
any company to sell a Nintendo game without going through Nintendo, and they
put severe restrictions on how many copies of a game could be made and how
much profit any 3rd party could make on a game.  The end results are that there
aren't any of the junk games that helped kill the Atari machines, and more
importantly, Nintendo gets a piece of every game cartridge sold.  Ever since the
Atari 2600 it's been obvious that you don't make money on the console, you make
it on the cartridge.

The personal computer market is quite different.  Nintendo doesn't have a home
market, or any market, with no competition in order to get a head start.  Folks
who write programs for real computers are used to being able to set their own
prices and sell as many as possible.  If they're the only game in town, you 
have to do what Nintendo says.  If they're one among many, you can tell them
"G'day" and sell products for a machine that'll make _you_ more profit, as
a third party.

> uucp: mcnc!rti!sunpix!steve or mcnc!rti!sunpix!allegro |Stephen McKay Matson
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
                    Too much of everything is just enough