People may get bored with computers - Nintendo boss

The new president of Nintendo says people are in danger of getting bored with computer games.

Satoru Iwata says the firm will refuse to make increasingly powerful games in the race for the bigger market share.

He said Nintendo must take a new and distinctive approach as an entertainment company, concentrating on creating better games.

He said: "We can't be optimistic about the game market. No matter what great product you come up with, people get bored. I feel like a chef cooking for a king who's full."

Sony's PlayStation 2 has been leading the pack with 30 million sold worldwide in the three-way game war that also includes the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox.

Nintendo has shipped about 4 million GameCube machines, while Microsoft is expecting to ship 3.5 million to 4 million Xbox consoles by the end of June. All three makers have slashed machine prices recently to woo game fans around the world.

Although he declined to give details of what Nintendo has in the works, he gave one example of where his company hopes to differ: It won't pursue online games, judging them as still too limited in appeal.

Nintendo is also planning more games to link up the Game Boy Advance, the company's hit portable machine, with GameCube. It will exploit its lineup of exclusive games like Mario and Zelda, while working more with outside game developers.

"The element of surprise is critical. But delivering surprise is becoming extremely difficult," said Hiroshi Yamauchi, Mr Iwata's predecessor who built his tiny card-maker into a global video-game giant. "Game developers are running out of ideas."

Mr Yamauchi, 74, who is stepping down after five decades at the company's helm, said developing games has grown too time-consuming and expensive. Nintendo hopes to come up with profitable games more quickly without compromising on their appeal, he said.