According to an article translated from the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has reaffirmed his position that mobile phone game development would be bad for Nintendo in the long run.
Nintendo has been under pressure from investors to begin developing games based on their marquis franchises for mobile platforms like iOS and Android. However, Iwata remains stalwart in refusing to give up on Nintendo's hardware business.
"This is absolutely not under consideration," said Iwata, according to Andria Sang. "If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."
Sales of Nintendo's latest handheld gaming platform, 3DS, have been less than stellar thus far. Though a recent price drop produced a significant sales bump that could get the platform back on the right track.
It's hard to blame Iwata for wanting to adhere to old strategies though. The Nintendo DS is still one of the best selling gaming consoles ever made, and made Nintendo quite a bundle. That said, it's pretty hard to ignore the ridiculous world-ending profits Nintendo would see if they put out a new full-priced Mario game on iOS.
Regardless of their position on iOS game development, we at Mac|Life adore Nintendo, and would like to lend our collective voice to peer pressuring Nintendo to start releasing titles on iOS. C'mon, Nintendo! All the cool kids are doing it.
brandonwalkermedia
September 15, 2011 at 11:06pm
and i will continue NOT buying your games! Your hardware is really BAD
CCardarelli
September 15, 2011 at 1:57pm
It's not going to happen unless something drastic happens to Nintendo, so don't hold your breath.
CCardarelli
September 15, 2011 at 3:13pm
I am still well aware of everything. Ultimately, they make a profit on the hardware they sell, and to cut that would cut a huge amount of revenue. It's in their vested interest to march their mobile devices into the ground, regardless of the proliferation of phone gaming.
Let's not forget, they're a Japanese company, and in their eyes, cell phone gaming has existed as a nonthreat for a long time. The short term gain, would result in a long term decline of their brand, period. And it's in their best interest to delay that as long as possible. Since the 3DS price drop, sales have been up dramatically.
Hold your breath if you want, but I'll hop the cubicle wall and revive you with smelling salts later.
brandonwalkermedia
September 15, 2011 at 11:09pm
EA games makes more then Nintendo, do they have hardware? Nintendo will ether start producing games fro other platforms but keep the best for its hardware or will continue on its current path to bankruptcy.
CeeDub
September 16, 2011 at 3:10am
Agreed. Who said anything about them having to stop making hardware? Port the games that people want for their mobile devices and it's win-win! No one said they had to stop making the DS. But it's clear that more and more people prefer their gaming on their multi-use mobile devices. I know I prefer carrying one iPhone versus a hand-held game console, iPod and phone separate.
