Nintendo dispels rumours about smartphone mini-games

by Mark Tyson on 29 January 2014, 19:23

Tags: Nintendo (TYO:7974)

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Nintendo has denied rumours it will be bringing its games to smartphones, as it officially  asserted it has "no plans" to offer mini-games on smartphone platforms. The recent headline grabbing rumours came from Japanese newspaper Nikkei's report, which in brief, claimed that Nintendo was planning to explore the possibilities of getting its stable of characters onto smartphones via mini-games.

Engadget has subsequently received a communication from Nintendo denying any smartphone 'mini-game' plans. The official word of the Big N, as told to Engadget is as follows:

"Nikkei's article contains information previously stated by Mr. Iwata during past press conferences, including statements which relate to Nintendo's willingness to make use of smart devices to promote our products."
"However during such past announcements Mr. Iwata has also stated that Nintendo's intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer mini-games on smartphone devices."

As you can read above, Nintendo clearly states that it will only be using smart devices to promote its games characters and hardware - not much in the way of gameplay will be on offer. So Nintendo resolutely steers clear of smartphone gaming even though the company clearly needs a boost after admitting its Wii U failure and a forecasted ¥35bn loss for the period ending 31 March 2014.

A new management strategy will also be announced tomorrow by the company to fight back against warnings of its third year of operating losses, reports Reuters. Nintendo plans are expected to focus on cost cuts and in marketing its beloved characters whilst sticking to its basic strategy of pushing hardware as much as the software, hopefully emerging as a more efficient company. Nintendo's top executives are also taking temporary pay-cuts in the range of 20 to 50 per cent in order to counter-balance its recent dive in profits.

Nintendo simply "cares too much about controlling the end-to-end gaming experience," suggests Matt Peckham from Time Magazine. This is probably why most analysts don’t really think a bolder change of direction will be made and the theory has been proven by the firm as it denies the rumours above, making a future of seeing Nintendo games on other platforms virtually impossible.

"Nintendo is a special thing, because of its history, so many gamers have a soft spot for Nintendo... they just shot themselves in the foot with this piece of hardware, the Wii U," said Tokyo-based gaming expert Jean Snow. "But I totally think they can get out."



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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As a long time gamer I would have agreed with this statement 2 or 3 years ago:
“Nintendo is a special thing, because of its history, so many gamers have a soft spot for Nintendo… they just shot themselves in the foot with this piece of hardware, the Wii U,” said Tokyo-based gaming expert Jean Snow. “But I totally think they can get out.”

However now I'm not so sure. The longer the time passes since I last played a Mario or Zelda title the less and less I miss it. I do worry for Nintendo in the long term. While I can understand their views they need to be careful they don't just fade into obscurity like Sega have (Yes I know they still make good games but they aren't the house hold name they once where).
I can see the predicament they are in and understand their reluctance to “do a Sega”.

Their biggest revenue stream seems to be handhelds and if they open their IP up there will be a flood of mobile games…..which would be competing against them. I see elsewhere that they have opened up some IP, just not for games (figurines)…..but to move forward I think they will need to release a console to compete technically with XBO/PS4 (and probably SteamOS), there are just too many other “light” options out there with large catalogues of games and apps and we all saw with the Wii-U (and I still wonder how they didn't see it before, you only had to look at how many Wii's were trading second hand) that novelties wear off and these extremely casual gamers that impulse bought Wiis were only going to buy 1 or 2 games and were not interested in “upgrading”. If you want to release a successful games console, it needs to be aimed at gamers.
shaithis
…but to move forward I think they will need to release a console to compete technically with XBO/PS4

I have to agree with this. Make it x86 based so that the makers of (supposed) AAA titles can do a quick ‘n cheap conversion. Get some guns on the console and the males/dads in gaming are more likely to buy in. No typical young male is going to buy Mario over (insert favourite shooter here). And I know they aren’t the whole market, but why alienate them? Especially if they are the man-of-the-house making the purchasing decision.. Nintendo is just to kiddy now and not even the kids thinks that cool.

(Edit: I used square brackets around the insert :)
The Wii U's biggest problem isn't even the spec.

It's the marketing.

Joe Public thinks it's an overpriced add-on they don't care about for their existing Wii.
Great. There's goes my dream of playing Zelda, Pokemon, and Mario Kart on a tablet.