"Nintendo 'studying' mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast"

[TopWargamer]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/17/5320312/nintendo-studying-mobile-devices

 

Earlier today Nintendo slashed its sales forecast for the Wii U by nearly 70 percent, which in turn led the company to predict an operating loss of around $336 million. And it appears that drastic change has forced the company to rethink how it does business. "We are thinking about a new business structure," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said at a press conference in Japan earlier today. "Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone."

 

It's not clear specifically what Iwata means by using smartphones to grow its business, but the company has previously been reticent about the idea of releasing games on mobile platforms, believing that it would lead to short term profits at the expense of long term growth.

 

This may be a good short term idea, but in the long term, well, I really don't know. Nintendo is in a really tough spot here. Also, I'd like to point out these 2 things:

 

1) The day Nintendo does this is the day Nintendo becomes Sega.

2) If Nintendo were to even put SOME of their games on mobile devices such as Android phones, they would have to mark down their games SIGNIFICANTLY. Why? That's just how the market is. For example, a person who has a WiiU will pay whatever the retail price for a new Nintendo game is ($60 I believe?) and that's fine and dandy. Now, if you release that SAME EXACT game on Android phones for the SAME price (going with $60 here), I can tell you right now, that same person would NOT buy it, unless they were a hardcore Nintendo fan, which there are few of. The highest priced Android games that I have come across are the Final Fantasy games, which go for around $15, and even at that price, the sales aren't as high as they should be.

 

So Nintendo, I wish you the best of luck, and please, PLEASE just make what you think the smart decision is. Do not simply overlook these things even though your sales forecast is very bleak right now. Nintendo has been making consoles since 1983 (main consoles, referring to the NES here), so they've been making hardware for 31 years, and I'd love to see Nintendo around another 31 years from now still making consoles, if possible.

[Eroda]

porting some of their Wii Titles to mobile might not be that bad of an idea keeping mobile 1 game generation behind the main flagship on their console

[MasterJV]

I'm not too sure about Mario on Android. Why? Because Touch screen ruins the platform experience. Try playing Super Mario Bro 3 on you touchscreen device and you will feel my pain.

[GoodBytes]

Hmm no that is not going to happen...

Either this is to please investors, and just have a report on how stupid this is.. 'cause it is.

Or, it's not for games, but for phone integration in some fashion. Already Nintendo released MiiVers for phone and web. I think it's a continuation of such service.

Maybe it's a a new GameBoy/DS phone in the future (5 years from now).

Definitely not Nintendo games on your phone.

[EChondo]

Why don't they just release PC versions already...