By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Jennifer Martinez
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Riding the success of its popular Wii video game console, Nintendo Co Ltd on Tuesday unveiled fresh titles for gamers to throw frisbees and rock on, while rival Sony Corp turned to Hollywood with a new video service.
At back-to-back news conferences on Tuesday at the E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles, Nintendo and Sony unveiled their different approaches to the market.
Industry leader Nintendo struck a confident note and stayed with its winning formula -- easy-to-play games for the mainstream audience. Sony, the once dominant market force, showed how the PlayStation 3 could do more by introducing a new video service.
The company said it would rent and sell movies and TV shows over the Internet for the PlayStation 3 and double the hard drive capacity of its main PS3 model.
The new video distribution service will attempt to close the gap with Microsoft's Xbox Live service and feature movies and TV shows from major studios, including its own Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and News Corp's 20th Century Fox.
Sony's online network has failed to keep pace with Xbox Live, Microsoft Corp's online service that gives the Xbox 360 console an advantage over the PS3, said Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at research firm IDC.
"Longer term, Microsoft is better positioned. What it's doing with Live will have better long term effects," he added.
Sony dominated the global video game industry for a decade starting in the mid-1990s. But the PS3, its latest console, has lagged Nintendo's Wii, and in recent months has been competing neck and neck with Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 for second place in the United States. Continued...
