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The Nintendo iQue Player or Mario goes to Beijing
Nintendo just announced a new game console that they are developing for the Chinese market and only the Chinese market called the Nintendo iQue player. I think this is a great idea and it actually has some of my personal predictions for videogame trends incorporated into this system.
So far no videogame company has been able to successfully market and make a profit in mainland China and there are some very good reasons for that. The problems that a game maker faces in China are:
Massive rampant professional piracy of all media formats imaginable, law enforcement agencies that do not care about fighting piracy of products that are not Chinese owned and a population that so custom to professionally pirated media that they have no concept of traditional videogame market prices
A lower economic pay scale. Things are much much cheaper and the people make much much less if you look at the exchange rates. A new game that would be a months allowance for a kid in Tokyo would be a years allowance for a kid in Shanghai.
Since Nintendo will not be making large profit margins off the sales of these systems and games they will need to have low overhead games and using the existing library of 8-bit, 16-bit and 64-bit games is a damn good way of doing that. Call it the Disney approach.
So how is Nintendo planning on solving these problems and make a hell of a lot of Magic Mushroom coins of the Chinese market?
The Nintendo iQue Player has low cost built into it as a design concept and Anti-Piracy DRM controls built into it's core DNA.
It sounds like a new version of the Nintendo 64 with a more powerful CPU that would allow the iQue Player to run 16-Bit Super Nintendo games in emulation. It is going to play customized versions of both N64 and SNES games and I am assuming that SNES games will be done in a form internal hardware emulation since the hardware is so different between the two generations of systems.
Now here is where it gets really interesting. The games are going to bet stored in Re-programmable 64 Meg Flash memory cards and there will be no cartridges or mini CDs to pirate. The games will be bought at a store vending machine kiosk and they game will be written on the card and encrypted to only work on that card and that System. Then when the card is inserted in the game system it is encrypted to match the DRM controls of that particular console.
The good news for Nintendo is that there is going to be no piracy or the development of piracy techniques will be to cost prohibitive for the professional pirates to make a profit.
The good news for the kids of China is that the system is going to only cost 498 yuan ($60) and a game will only cost 48 yuan ($5.81 ) but they will have to bring their systems over to their friends place not just the memory cards. It is very slick that Nintendo was able to get rid of the cartridges and optical discs as well as the manufacturing and distribution of the games. Also the cheaper distribution costs might encourage new Chinese language games made and sold in the domestic Chinese market.
NOTE: This picture is the old Japanese 8-Bit Nintendo system with the disk drive and is NOT the new Nintendo iQue player.
If you remember my predictions about the Next Gameboy system I predicted the exact same idea of game distribution. I no longer think that the Next Gameboy system is going to be exclusively flash memory based and that Nintendo will have to develop a portable optical drive if they can compete with the Sony Playstation Portable.
I think it would be pretty slick if Nintendo started releasing massive amounts of old cheap 16-bit and 64-bit games on the Gamecube in emulation but that is just me.
I doubt that we will see this in America but it might be brought to other countries like India and Russia that have similarly inclined economic markets. Think of it as a videogame system for the rest of the world.
Jake at September 25, 2003 
Games
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Comments
I think that is a great idea. But why can't they bring something similar here to the states?
Posted by: Mici at September 27, 2003 9:49 AM
Well we don't really need it in the states because video game piracy is not as big a problem. What would be cool is if Nintendo started releasing volumes of old NES, Snes, Gameboy and N64 games for the Gamecube in emulation for super cheap prices.
Posted by: Jake at September 27, 2003 12:11 PM
My IP is 67.37.26.211 and I left a fake email address so my comments were deleted by Jake
Posted by: Dead Mouse at September 28, 2003 9:42 PM
Bleamcast was designed to work with all Dreamcasts and there was no cracking involved. You know Gamecube has never been cracked. Some one figured out how to read the discs but not to make bootleg Gamecube discs that worked. So Nintendo has made the only game system that has not been cracked yet.
Posted by: Jake at September 28, 2003 9:53 PM
Well, part of that can be contributed to the fact that the disks are a unique size.
Posted by: Mici at September 29, 2003 1:13 PM
Yup. That is not the only reason but it is a major one. A good idea too.
Posted by: Jake at September 29, 2003 1:18 PM
Given the details, prices etc, the iQue should really work in China, at least in the Cities, where people earn enough to afford it. Outside of the cities it's still too little to play games :/
Posted by: David at October 1, 2003 3:39 AM
And if anyone can pull it off it is Nintendo. I hope we see new original Chinese games for it made by local game developers.
Posted by: Jake at October 1, 2003 7:53 AM
Does any 1 know HOW, to read GC disks? Or have any linx?
Posted by: Tom at October 1, 2003 5:38 PM
Yeah check this out!
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_how_to_burn_xbox_games_and_copy_protected_cds.php
Posted by: Jake at October 1, 2003 6:09 PM
Maybe you have missed it, but there already are Flash Cards for GBA that are used to ditriute / play FreeWare gba roms and software like e-books, nes emulators, z80, sega master system, atari games, Video files and Music on Gameboy Advance and GBA SP. You can read more about it at http://www.gameboy-advance.net . NOTE: They are not produced by Nintendo (N makes such gb flash cards ONLY for the game developers)
Posted by: EZ-Flash at October 2, 2003 3:39 AM
That is because there is almost no security built into the GBA. The Nintendo iQue will not have the same issues. If Nintendo really wanted to they could probably sue the GBA Flash Card importers using the DMCA.
Posted by: Jake at October 2, 2003 9:15 AM
The official IRC Channel for the iQue Player is at EFnet in channel #iQue . We will discuss HomeBrew apps, games, and Dev info. So drop by, if you'd like to get more info and be apart of Nintendos new Project.
Posted by: steve at October 4, 2003 5:52 PM
Official? Do you work for iQue or Nintendo?
Posted by: Jake at October 4, 2003 11:58 PM
that picture up their is really a snes and some other parts. IT IS A FAKE SYSTEM!!! how could you show people a fake system that is not a real thing. i hope i made myself clear by now.
Posted by: vinnie alonso at January 18, 2004 6:32 PM
No you are wrong. It is the origional Japanese 8-bit Nintendo Famicom and the Nintendo Famicom Disk Drive
Posted by: Jake at January 18, 2004 8:12 PM
Yes - Vinnie - You should know more about the History of Nintendo ( http://www.n64emu.com/Nintendo_history.htm ) before you say that that image is fake!
Posted by: Advance Gamer at March 3, 2004 11:15 PM
