Flying in the face of all conventional thinking on the matter, Nintendo Co is claiming that the advent of faster, smarter, 32-bit video games machines won’t spark a price war among older equipment. Company president Hiroshi Yamauchi told Reuter he reckons most games players don’t even care whether the hardware is 16-bit or 32-bit, and argued that the idea of a next-generation machine excites nobody but the makers and the mass media. Yamauchi is sticking by his decision that the company will not develop a 32-bit version of its entertainment system series, called Famicom in Japan, which is connected to a television set. It will, however, make a 32-bit player for use with computer terminals and to go on sale early next year at a price of under $194, he said. He also said he suspected consumers might not be as keen on new multimedia functions as manufacturers hoped – and added that if Matsushita Electric Industrial Co succeeded in its promise to sell 1m of the 32-bit 3DO Co Interactive Multiplayer machines in its first year of marketing, that he would resign!
