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Nintendo Bets on ‘Micro’

Nintendo is hoping its small handheld Game Boy console will ward off the threat from Sony`s PlayStation Portable.

August 18, 2005

Nintendo said Thursday it plans to start selling its Game Boy Micro, which it calls the world`s smallest handheld console, at roughly the size of a deck of cards, in early September as it prepares to do battle with Sony`s PlayStation Portable.

Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo said its latest handheld is 4 inches wide, 2 inches long, 0.7 inches thin, and weighs the equivalent of 80 paper clips. The tiny game console will have the same power as the Game Boy Advance and will play the same 700 or so available games.

The Micro is to debut in Japan on September 13 and sell for ¥ 12,000 ($109). The U.S. release is planned for about a week later, September 19, and will retail for $99.99. Sales will begin in Europe in November. The company first announced the device in May (See Nintendo Plans a ‘Revolution’).

Though Nintendo lags behind Sony in the console market, it dominates the handheld game market. But Nintendo`s mobile market share is threatened by Sony`s PlayStation Portable, which launched in the United States in March (See PSP to Launch Thursday).

Nintendo’s November launch in Europe would put it about two months behind the PlayStation Portable launch there expected next month. Sony plans to sell 13 million units by next year. Meanwhile, Nintendo estimates sales of the Micro will reach 4 million units in the same period.

The global handheld entertainment market is estimated at $4.5 billion.

Nintendo also sells other handhelds like the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. In another sign the company is moving to try to maintain its dominant position in the mobile entertainment market, Nintendo cut the price of the Nintendo DS in the U.S. by $20.

The mobile console market brings in more casual gamers who use the device as a ``time killer,`` as opposed to the longer hours gamers normally spend playing on a console. Industry analysts also expect the $100 price range of the handheld consoles to pull in more new gamers.