iPad “Will Destroy Nintendo”

A Final Fantasy writer has boldly proclaimed that the release of Apple’s iPad heralds the end of Nintendo’s dominance of portable gaming, whilst even Square Enix’s CEO seems to have experienced some sort of iPad imparted epiphany…

Game developer/writer Masato Kato, heavily involved with such esteemed titles as Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and Final Fantasy VII/XI, tweets that the iPad heralds the destruction of Nintendo and the DS:

With the release of the iPad, the age of Nintendo has really come to an end, hasn’t it? Though they’ve been digging their own grave with the DS and Wii for some time.

That there are as yet no games of note on the platform does not seem to bother him; nor does the Apple leadership’s well established contempt for gaming and general failure to acheive success in the gaming market seem to weight on his mind.

Apple products seem to have a particularly acute effect on Japanese gadget fans, perhaps a result of their design appealing to commonly held Japanese sensibilities – possibly this factors in to his evident excitement.

Meanwhile, Square Enix CEO Wada has been playing with his newly acquired iPad and reports that he too is greatly enthused by the device:

I’ve been using it since this morning. Damn…

[…]

It has a lot of business functionality, but what really gets me are the possibilities. I was hooked in an instant. This is a platform. I think a lot of good things will come from this.

Fortunately, he seems not yet to have tried visiting many of his company’s game sites with the device.

Of course, that his company has just released two iPad apps would have nothing to do with his new found enthusiasm for the device – it is sheer coincidence that the two events came within days of each other.