[Economist] 跳跃开始（四）

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跳跃开始

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Indeed, Nintendo says it is making the shift in the hope that mobile users—who may be encountering its games for the first time—will be enticed to buy its consoles and help perk up hardware sales. “Super Mario Run” will be free to download, but players will pay a flat fee after a few sample levels (the amount is as yet unknown, but probably ranging between $5 and $20). Company staffers are preoccupied with a new console to be launched in March, code-named the NX. It is said to be a hybrid between a console and a handheld device, to be played on the go or docked at home. The focus on the NX is partly because the firm badly needs a big technological splash. If the console is another dud, it could even be forced to think about shutting its consumer-hardware business.

确实，任天堂表示其正在转变，希望那些可能是第一次玩他们游戏的手机用户被吸引到，然后购买主机来提升任天堂的硬件销量。“Super Mario Run” 游戏可以免费下载，但是玩家在几个示范性关卡之后将必须支付一笔费用（具体金额尚不明确，但可能在 5-20 美元之间）。公司员工专注于将在三月份发布的新主机，代号 NX 。据称这是主机和掌机的混合体，可以携带游玩或者在家使用。专注于 NX 的一部分原因是公司渴望一个技术上的革新。如果这台主机成为下一个失败品，可能将迫使公司关闭消费硬件业务。

Its continued focus on hardware is of a piece with a firm that still sees itself primarily as a craftsman of boxed goods, says Mr Toto. At its headquarters (which he describes as a mix between a “Kafkaesque castle and Willy Wonka”) games designers sport dark-blue engineering jackets like those worn by Japanese factory workers, with pens in their breast pockets. Seth Fischer, an Israeli activist investor in the firm, says the building is “like a mausoleum”. For many observers the success of “Pokémon Go” shows the gulf between Nintendo’s offerings and what customers want: hobbled, perhaps, by monozukuri, a tendency for Japanese consumer-electronics firms to over-engineer products to best others on weight or size, say.

Toto 先生表示：任天堂任然将硬件业务作为组成部分可见其自身定义为货柜产品的工匠。在任天堂的总部（在他形容中是一个卡夫卡城堡和查理的巧克力工厂的混合体），游戏设计者穿着如同日本工人一样深蓝色的工程师夹克，并在胸袋中放一支笔。公司的一个以色列投资者 Seth Fischer 形容建筑物“就像陵墓”。在许多观察家看来“Pokémon Go”展示了任天堂实际提供的产品和玩家希望玩到的游戏之间的鸿沟，或许许多日本消费电子厂商的“造物论”趋势使得其过于强调工程设计在重量或者体积上小于其他厂商。