Nintendo Under Pressure to Delve into Mobile Gaming
Bloomberg has released a report suggesting that Nintendo’s investors are growing discontent with the company’s current dedication to its own platforms and want the brand to expand into the mobile phone arena. It’s a conflict that shines a spotlight on the growing rift between traditional handheld games and the explosion of the cellphone game market.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata isn’t having any of it, however, saying that Nintendo will only make games for its own systems so long as he is in charge. It’s a stance that has some industry analysts worried.
Masamitsu Ohki, a fund manager for Stats Investment Manager Co. in Tokyo, claims that, “Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry.” He feels that Nintendo needs to make its presence known in the mobile market to address investor fears.
Back in July, a new Pokémon application for Japanese smartphones was unveiled, and Nintendo’s stocks surged as investors believed this marked the beginning of a change of strategy for the company. By the end of the day, they had fallen back to normal levels after management denied any change in their current strategy of supporting their own hardware and that the application was an independent move made by the Pokémon Company.
Instead of mobile gaming, Nintendo is redoubling its efforts on the handheld front, hoping that its upcoming price cut for its 3DS system will revitalize its lagging sales, not to mention offering a strong series of first-party titles heading into the holiday season.
If you will pardon me for editorializing for a moment, I certainly hope Nintendo sticks to their guns on this one. As someone who has been a huge fan of handheld gaming for most of his life, I find it very disappointing to think that the future of handheld gaming really resides in soulless 99¢ Flash games with all the depth of a kiddy pool. But what do you think? Should Nintendo relent and make games for mobile phones? Let us know in the comments.
Sigh… My huge rant didn’t post correctly. But I’ll say this: I think it’s insulting that the whole app movement has essentially redefined gaming as “something to do to waste time.” Anyone who thinks Angry Birds is on the same level as Dragon Quest IX is a fool. With the former you get a few minutes of mindless entertainment. The latter gives you an experience. Try recreating that experience on an iPhone.
You can’t.
probably the only game ive played as an experience on the IOS is probably battleheart! i highly recommend it.
This a million times. I can’t stand how mobile app games are considered on equal footing with traditional games. There’s a depth in traditional handheld gaming that current mobile providers can’t even begin to touch.
The sad thing with that is, the majority of people who spend money on these games don’t care about traditional gaming in the least and they’re where the money is right now.
While I can’t physically say that these things are “video games” without groaning, I will say that the idea of having a Nintendo quality handheld console with that quality of gaming that was also a phone makes too much sense for Nintendo to not at least be looking into it. It’d make my life so much easier. The Nintenphone.
You guys are aware that Final Fantasy Tactics: War of The Lions has been released for the iPhone, right? It is certainly a capable machine, and there are already homebrew Nintendo emulators running on jailbroken iPhones.
I think you can replicate that experience on the iphone, it’s certainly powerful enough. But there is no reason that nintendo should be forced to pander to apple to deliver its content (coming from a macbook and iphone owner)
Handheld gaming consoles are living on borrowed time at this point. Their entire point in existing is that they are easily portable. With smartphones becoming increasingly common it’s naive to think that they (PSP/Vita/DS/etc.) will be able to survive as anything more than boutique items.
The quality of the games we see on phones might not be up to the standard of the competition, but it will get there. We’re seeing large publishers moving into the mobile market along with prices in the $5 to $15 price range. The only things holding back smartphone gaming, as I see it, are the lack of tactile feedback on buttons, disorganization of the storefronts, and the consumer resistance to larger price points.
Resolve against that last problem is starting to weaken as large publishers raise the quality bar. The first problem really just needs developers to find a better method of input than onscreen buttons with no feedback. As for the storefront, I think that as heavy hitters move into the market there will be pressure from them for a reorganization so that they don’t have to fight with the rabble.
I disagree, at least partially. I thought along the same line as you when the iPhone came out in relation to the iPod: “The iPod is now dead, no one will buy that thing”. And yet, sales are still strong! Declining, but strong.
As long as there are parents who want to occupy kids’ time but don’t also want them to have a phone (or an expensive phone), portable gaming will live on.
Also, the trend of mobile devices is to get away from tactile buttons. I don’t see that being resolved anytime soon.
And finally – battery life is still a major issue. I own an iControlPad for my iPhone, and by the end of the day when I want to play on it, the battery is near dead. I’m considering getting a second device just so they have separate batteries (something like the G2PX Caanoo).
As a Nintendo fanboy, If Nintendo abandoned home consoles and became a third party developer I would probably shed real tears. If they became an iPhone app developer I would burn this gay world to the damn ground.
They should make a portable wii that projects a hologram for the screen in 3D and picks up your movements on the other end.
****** A man, ****** A