Nintendo Denies Reports of Smartphone "Minigame" Development Plans

[Michael Epstein]

Nintendo Denies Reports of Smartphone "Minigame" Development Plans

Stand down, fanboys and girls. Nintendo is not getting into the smartphone game business.

Contrary to what you may have read [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131717-Report-Nintendo-to-Bring-Demos-of-Its-Console-Games-to-Smartphones] in the last day or so, Nintendo says they are not designing games for smartphones. The console-maker released a statement denying yesterday's Nikkei report claiming the big N would make smartphone "minigames" to attract mobile gamers to their hardware.

"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," Nintendo told Engadget [http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/28/nintendo-denies-smartphone-games/] in a prepared statement. "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 minigames on smartphone devices."

Investors, developers, gamers and pundits have all been waiting for Nintendo to announce some kind of major strategic shift to get their company back on track in light of their recently revealed this report [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131477-Nintendo-Plummets-in-List-of-Powerful-Japanese-Companies] is an attempt to predict what Nintendo's plan before they even know.

Its safe to say that Nintendo is going to do something that they hope will change their luck. Based on the company's history, though, I think its pretty clear that the only people who know what Nintendo is thinking are the people working there.

Source: Engadget [http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/28/nintendo-denies-smartphone-games/]

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[Alfredo Jones]

Well that is kinda sad to hear. I'm sure having minigames would be a big boost, even if said games are just other games with a Nintendo skin. Let's hope whatever they are planning to do is just as good.

 

[MCerberus]

Hey Nintendo.
You want money from the mobile gaming public huh?
And you're still not releasing old GB/GBC/GBA games, letting the pirates run the retro-game sector?

 

[xaszatm]

So, in other words, we probably should take people who sprout rumors and predictions about a company they don't work for with a grain of salt? I never would have guessed! So I hope this means the internet as a whole has learned to stop being armchair CEO's when they don't understand anything about a company? Anyone? No? Darn...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Golden Sun on the Andriod Market/iOS folks. Think about it

Seriously though, I think Nintendo would muck it up by pricing games on smartphones like Square Enix does.

 

[xaszatm]

Hey Nintendo.
You want money from the mobile gaming public huh?
And you're still not releasing old GB/GBC/GBA games, letting the pirates run the retro-game sector?

Because as we all know, all Nintendo games are a perfect match for the touchscreen controls of a phone... Out of all the GB/GBC/GBA games, the only genre in which touchscreen would work would be RPGs (Japanese, collectible, and tactical) and puzzles. Platform Games (which is what most people want) don't work well with touchscreen controls unless they were specifically designed to work with touch screen controls. So, you're down to Advanced Wars, Pokemon, and Fire Emblem on smartphone devices. Add to the fact that Pokemon will never be on smartphones because you simply just don't put one of your biggest cash cows on another system, and you're left with two franchises. Yeah, I can totally see Nintendo making a ton of money off of smartphone games...

 

[MCerberus]

Golden Sun on the Andriod Market/iOS folks. Think about it

Seriously though, I think Nintendo would muck it up by pricing games on smartphones like Square Enix does.

Actually, thinking about it, it would be a better idea for a "Nintendo" app that allows for rom In-ap Purchasing. The issue, and probably the reason this hasn't been tried, is that nobody has thought of a way to go through the whole buy-to-download process without it being bandwidth-intensive. We're talking mobile band here, so it's best practices to not eat through your customers' data like Jabba at a hotdog eating contest.

Plus corporate is going to want strict controls against third-party roms.

Hey Nintendo.
You want money from the mobile gaming public huh?
And you're still not releasing old GB/GBC/GBA games, letting the pirates run the retro-game sector?

Because as we all know, all Nintendo games are a perfect match for the touchscreen controls of a phone... Out of all the GB/GBC/GBA games, the only genre in which touchscreen would work would be RPGs (Japanese, collectible, and tactical) and puzzles. Platform Games (which is what most people want) don't work well with touchscreen controls unless they were specifically designed to work with touch screen controls. So, you're down to Advanced Wars, Pokemon, and Fire Emblem on smartphone devices. Add to the fact that Pokemon will never be on smartphones because you simply just don't put one of your biggest cash cows on another system, and you're left with two franchises. Yeah, I can totally see Nintendo making a ton of money off of smartphone games...

Actually, the earlier GB models can be emulated pretty well with overlays. The GBA is the big issue with their shoulder buttons. Those get in the way... I mean I wouldn't know anything about that

 

[MCerberus]

Of course not all of it, but I've- I mean I suspect people have never had an issue with a large swath of their first-party games from the GB* era

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

They shouldn't be making Mario Angry Birds, they should just be putting their regular games onto smartphone and tablet devices. They'd make a killing if they put their back catalog (Their entire back catalog: nes, snes, n64, gb, gba, nds, not the paltry scraps they decide to toss on the 3DS market) on the Play Store. I'd love Majora's Mask or Fire Emblem on my Galaxy.

Maybe if they did that they'd be comfortable to finally go third-party.

But they aren't wanting to go third party, what they are doing right now doesn't even equate to them even remotely shifting to third party.

Where's this definite third party decision coming from, you?, you want them to go third party I'm assuming since you've pointed out you own a Galaxy and no Nintendo handhelds at this current point in time.

If Nintendo throw their scraps to the mobiles then that's what the mobiles will probably get.

Remember Nintendo isn't about Mobiles and isn't going to pander to them anytime soon.

And that's why they'd have to optimize it. It can be done. I've played more button intensive games on my tablet just fine. And the resolution on the NDS is about the same as smart phone, maybe a little more. Totally doable. Especially so on a tablet.

OR, instead of doing something so ridiculous, they could spend less time and money on simply putting the game on the 3DS so we can all play it with easy, familiar controls.

Exactly, that makes sense from a business and user point of view.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Golden Sun on the Andriod Market/iOS folks. Think about it

Seriously though, I think Nintendo would muck it up by pricing games on smartphones like Square Enix does.

Actually, thinking about it, it would be a better idea for a "Nintendo" app that allows for rom In-ap Purchasing. The issue, and probably the reason this hasn't been tried, is that nobody has thought of a way to go through the whole buy-to-download process without it being bandwidth-intensive. We're talking mobile band here, so it's best practices to not eat through your customers' data like Jabba at a hotdog eating contest.

Plus corporate is going to want strict controls against third-party roms.

A Nintendo app won't happen as long as "The App Store" exists. Apple would not let themselves get wrecked by Nintendo i the games department. Valve would have a better chance getting Apple to put all iOS games on a Steam app made for iPhone.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

If Nintendo ever did put games out on smart phone, it shouldn't be a dumping ground for more Virtual Console games. They should make or greatly modify games that supplement 3DS and Wii U games, something that makes people think that those platforms have better games for them or their kids than this touchscreen centric garbage on ios and android. It would not be to directly make money even if it did turn a profit but to advertise their systems through addictive but short games. They could even give out games for free for people to see what is on their systems without any financial risk. Nintendo doesn't want to waste resources developing for a new system, and that's their decision. But, they better do something to get out of this slump, because Watch Dogs, Bayonetta 2, and even upcoming games of their own(besides Zelda, possibly) are not going to move systems the way they want.