Sony and Nintendo should give up making hardware and focus on becoming "content-only," as devoting their resources to software for iPhone and Android would give them "massive relief."

This opinion was one of the talking points at a roundtable discussion held at the close of the Develop conference in Liverpool.

UKIE chairman Andy Payne responded to a question about the futility of Sony and Nintendo's hardware plight, comparing their focus on hardware to the self destructive nature of drug abuse.

Junkies

"I think it would be a massive relief to both Sony and Nintendo to become content-only," said Payne.

"Right now, they might not even know it. You know that thing where you take drugs and you think it's the best thing in the world? Then you get off them and go, 'What was I doing?'

"Imagine any Mario or Zelda property being on the iPhone or an Android phone. They'd get £10 or £15 for it, because people would want to pay to have it on their phone. They would. And that would be amazing. And Sony's content is amazing. I mean, Uncharted ... it's just brilliant!

"I'm not knocking those guys, because they really do make fantastic games. And when we kind of get that bit over, wouldn't it be refreshing to have Nintendo really making stuff for the iPhone, Android, and all the other stuff that's around?"

Dinosaurs

Earlier on in the discussion, Payne outlined his belief that current production fees at Sony and Nintendo were too high and that their approach was old-fashioned.

"Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft [are] dinosaurs, because they're using these old-fashioned business models where you have to pay a royalty, tribute, tax - whatever you want to call it, it's quite a lot of Euros per unit, fixed, [based on] what you order as a publisher, not what you sell," he said.

"If that was to come down… let's say it's €1 to manufacture it, where the real cost is €0.20 - then that would put games into the hands of consumers, at retail, at circa £20.

"You'd have more people buying games, less of a second-hand market, probably a bit less piracy, and that market might carry on for a bit longer."

[source: VideoGamer.com]