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  3. Passage One (1) As video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted the

Passage One (1) As video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted the

游客2023-11-24  41
问题     Passage One
    (1)  As video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted their new gizmos at the Tokyo Game Show this week, industry executives had more than the coming holiday sales season on their minds.
    (2)  Apple’s recent foray into video games—with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and its ever-expanding online App Store—is causing as much hand-wringing among old industry players as the global economic slump, which threatens to take the steam out of year-end shopping for the second consecutive year. Among the questions voiced by video game executives; How can Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft keep consumers hooked on game-only consoles, like the Wii or even the PlayStation Portable, when Apple offers games on popular, everyday devices that double as cellphones and music players? And how can game developers and the makers of big consoles persuade consumers to buy the latest shoot’em-ups for $ 30 or more, when Apple’s App store is full of games, created by developers around the world and approved by Apple, that cost as little as 99 cents—or even are free? The concerns highlight an accelerating shift away from hard-core games, which have traditionally driven console sales, to more casual ones played on cellphones. Of the 758 new game titles shown at the Tokyo Game Show, 168 were for cellphone platforms—more than twice as many as in the previous year.
    (3)  Apple did not participate in the Tokyo Game Show, which ends Sunday. But the company introduced a beefed-up version of the iPod Touch this month, explicitly comparing it as a gaming platform with the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable. Apple’s assault could even eat into sales of home consoles like Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Microsoft’s XBox, as game-playing quickly becomes centered on cellphones. Many in the industry say that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft need to explore more radical changes to their businesses, including an emphasis on software rather than hardware and a better way for users to download games.
    (4)  For game makers like Konami, the iPhone could be an attractive platform because it is cheap and easy to develop games for, with potentially large returns. Developing games for sophisticated machines like PlayStation 3 and XBox, on the other hand, is time-consuming and expensive. Decreasing interest from game makers could further hurt Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, because they rely on solid game lineups to drive console sales. And in turn, lower console sales would mean fewer developers interested in making new games. To bolster sales of its Wii, Nintendo said Thursday that it would cut its price by a fifth in major markets, following similar cuts by Sony and Microsoft for their own consoles. Nintendo is trying to stem a recent slide in popularity of the Wii. The console was a hit with consumers, thanks to its motion-sensitive controller, but sales have stalled, dropping to 2. 23 million units in the April-to-June quarter from 5.17 million a year earlier.
    (5)  A year ago, Nintendo also introduced a new version of its DS handheld device that lets users download digital content, including music, photos, videos and games, via a Wi-Fi connection—a clear imitation of Apple’s App Store. Microsoft, meanwhile, is developing technology that lets people play video games using natural body movements instead of hand-held controllers. In June, the company introduced a prototype of a project code-named Natal, a motion system that combines cameras with voice and face-recognition software. Sony has promised even more hardware wizardry: 3-D video games and a new controller much like the Wii that is shaped like a lollipop and senses motion. Its PlayStation Go portable console, due next month, does away with memory discs and instead relies on downloads from a virtual store.  But analysts say hardware is fast losing center stage to software in the game-playing world. What will draw consumers, said Hirokazu Hanamura, president of the Tokyo market research company, Enterbrain, is software prowess, like Apple’s App Store, which already has 21,100 games—far more than Nintendo and Sony combined.
    (6) Many within the industry are wary of change. Still, Japan has experience in developing games for cellphones. According to an industry group, Japan’s cellphone game market reached ￥16.25 billion in 2007. Japanese companies have been especially successful in combining mobile phone games with social networking. Gree, a fast-growing site with about 12. 6 million users, gets visitors hooked on its social networking service, then offers cellphone games on its mobile version. The company makes money on advertisements and by charging for premium accounts. Some Japanese game developers, meanwhile, have jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. Since Apple first released the iPhone in the United States in 2007, Hudson, a games company, has introduced 26 applications for the App Store and logged 3 million downloads. Hudson plans to increase the pace of development, creating 20 applications a year. [br] Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
选项 A、Apple’s Shadow Hangs over Game Console Makers
B、New Trend Appeared in the Video Game Industry
C、Japan Gives Away its Leading Role in the Video Game Industry
D、A Review of the Tokyo Game Show
答案 A
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