With Nintendo struggling to adapt to a world where mobile gamers are more likely to own iPhones than Nintendo DS devices, some investors recently began pushing Nintendo to stop looking at Apple as the enemy and start releasing games for iOS devices.
Now Contra on the iPad sounds pretty bad ass, but Nintendo President Satoru Iwata a few weeks ago was adamant that the company would never head down that route and that Nintendo will never release software titles for other hardware platforms as long as he’s in charge.
Addressing the matter yet again, Iwata reiterated his strong stance on developing for the iPhone and iPad. Following a 3DS press conference, Iwata explained the following to a Japanese news outlet:
This is absolutely not under consideration. 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 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.
All in all, not too surprising considering Iwata had previously describe the iPhone and iPad as “enemies of the future”.
One, however, can’t deny the detrimental impact casual mobile gaming on devices like the iPhone has had on Nintendo. In 2010, Nintendo posted its first quarterly loss in two years and 3DS sales have been tepid enough as to warrant significant price cuts both here in the US and in Japan. The price cuts have been effective in markedly increasing 3DS sales, but it also has quite an impact on Nintendo’s bottom line.
Going forward, Nintendo plans to increase interest in the 3DS by implementing 3D video recording functionality and releasing a pink 3DS meant to appeal to female gamers.
via Industry Gamers
September 16th, 2011 at 7:49 am
Apple used to be that way too. But in 1995 things changed when they released QuickTime for Windows. Then Filemaker became cross platform, and iPod was made for Windows, then iTunes. It’s been very good for Apple – they even opened up their hardware for Windows – imagine Nintendo allowing Sony to run their PlayStation on their hardware!
September 22nd, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Nintendo is on a slow downward spiral. They refuse to acknowledge the changes that have happened to the landscape in the past 4 years. When the DS came out, there was no iPhone or iPad or iPod touch. No “indie gaming” market. No iOS or Android.
They’re gonna have to adapt. Or die. And I don’t want Mario or Zelda to die. But let’s face it. Stand alone consoles, or at least stand alone portable consoles, are going to become irrelevant.