Both Hitachi and Sharp are in charge of making the screens used in the Nintendo DS. It seems, though, that they may have been partaking in some shifty practices during their engagement with Nintendo.
The Japanese Free Trade Commission is accusing the companies of price fixing the LCD screens in order to gain a larger profit. In other words, the two companies got together behind Nintendo’s back and decided to sell these products at a certain price so that neither of them had to worry about competing with the other company. They could simply enjoy sharing the profits. And believe me, when you’re involved with the DS in any way, there are plenty of profits.
The Fair Trade Commission raided their offices on February 28 following a news report. Both companies could face fines up to 10% of the total profit from their scam.
What does this mean for the average gamer? Well, the price of LCD screens is definitely going to go down, which means production costs will be lowered. With the current mass success of the DS, it is unlikely that Nintendo will cut the price at the moment, however with a larger profit margin, Nintendo could be tempted to lower the price a bit sooner than they originally might have.
[via Gamasutra]
