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Nintendo & DeNA Business Agreement - Nintendo on Smartphones


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Posted (edited)
'spose it was inevitable. But really dislike the idea, Nintendo's IP is special, it never feels right seeing them on alternative platforms. I'm not convinced offering mini games really is an effective way to draw people into a home console, smart device owners prove themselves to be fickle, wanting stuff for free/cheap. Are they really going to splash £200 on a new console because they had a turd whilst playing Mario Candy Ninja? I suppose we will have to wait and see. I was always going to be critical of the move, a few exceptions aside mobile gaming is lowest common denominator pants.

 

A joint "membership" service sounds intriguingly though. Linking your smart device acheivemnets with your NNID would be a nice touch, a common gaming profile across all devices. Perhaps this is confirmation that the new loyalty programme will cover smart device purchases too?

 

I don't think this is about trying to get those people to purchase Nintendo hardware. It's another avenue to generate revenue, the question is could it see people who already buy a dedicated handheld no longer feel the need too?

 

They had to do something though. They've lost a massive amount of market and mind share this generation. Add to the fact that, despite some great sellers on the 3DS, the mobile market is a massive player in the gaming world now, especially in Japan.

 

My main concern is the same one I have with QoL. If either of these business ventures become stupidly successful for Nintendo, then why even bother with dedicated gaming consoles in the first place? Especially if they continue to lose out in the console space.

 

Yes, at the moment they say that dedicated hardware is still their bread and butter but for how long? Many on here said they would never allow for their IPs to star in mobile games, yet here we are.

 

Times, they are a changin. Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen

.

 

True. The market has changed and you could argue as a duty to shareholders Iwata and co need to address the loss of marketshare and find further revenue streams

Edited by liger05
Posted
I don't think this is about trying to get those people to purchase Nintendo hardware. It's another avenue to generate revenue, the question is could it see people who already buy a dedicated handheld no longer feel the need too?

The press release says the idea is for both.

Posted

Ohh, can someone please dig up that discussion where myself and others were saying how perfectly an adapted Mario game (e.g. a runner) would work on tablets and whatnot? I remember some people were very adamantly denying its potential.

Posted
They had to do something though. They've lost a massive amount of market and mind share this generation. Add to the fact that, despite some great sellers on the 3DS, the mobile market is a massive player in the gaming world now, especially in Japan.

 

My main concern is the same one I have with QoL. If either of these business ventures become stupidly successful for Nintendo, then why even bother with dedicated gaming consoles in the first place? Especially if they continue to lose out in the console space.

 

Yes, at the moment they say that dedicated hardware is still their bread and butter but for how long? Many on here said they would never allow for their IPs to star in mobile games, yet here we are.

 

Times, they are a changin. Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen.

 

That being said, the success of the Touch Generations series hardly stopped them from continuing to make more traditional experiences...

 

Historical precedence would indicate that they're not going to abandon their dedicated hardware/software development at least...

 

The thought of Nintendo's IP getting whored out on mobiles just sickens me though! Fucking parasite!!! :mad:

Posted
Ohh, can someone please dig up that discussion where myself and others were saying how perfectly an adapted Mario game (e.g. a runner) would work on tablets and whatnot? I remember some people were very adamantly denying its potential.

 

I was tempted. It's like the 3DS second stick all over again. :D

 

They weren't denying its potential either, they were flat out saying it wouldn't happen.

 

This comes back to what i've said a few times on here in recent months. Not one of us on here knows what Nintendo are going to do, so why not keep an open mind about things and stop talking like things are set in stone.

Posted
I was tempted. It's like the 3DS second stick all over again. :D

 

They weren't denying its potential either, they were flat out saying it wouldn't happen.

 

This comes back to what i've said a few times on here in recent months. Not one of us on here knows what Nintendo are going to do, so why not keep an open mind about things and stop talking like things are set in stone.

 

It's never an inspired direction until it actually happens. ;)

 

Shit, really? I thought they were just saying it was a bad idea, not denying it would ever happen. :heh:

Posted
The thought of Nintendo's IP getting whored out on mobiles just sickens me though! Fucking parasite!!! :mad:

 

Haha. It does seem to cheapen the IP slightly but then I just have a very bad view on the mobile sector of gaming.

Posted

So....

 

I was right? LOL.

 

Note that they said the games will be fully designed mobile games, not ports.

 

I can finally play Nintendo games on the go ahead! Awesome news.

Posted

Not a fan of this because I don't care for smart phone gaming and this is going to take resources away from traditional gaming. There's no indication yet that this is going anywhere else but Japan.

Posted
The press release says the idea is for both.

 

No doubt it does.

 

Sorry I should of said I don’t think it will help achieve that. I think people who play games on phones and tablets are more than happy with what they have and if they really wanted a dedicated handheld they would have one already. It’s not like they don’t know what Nintendo and there IP’s are, they just don’t think they need a dedicated handheld device and having access to those IP’s on their phone if anything emphasises that point.

Posted
Not a fan of this because I don't care for smart phone gaming and this is going to take resources away from traditional gaming. There's no indication yet that this is going anywhere else but Japan.

 

They're using another company so it doesn't take resources away from traditional gaming. On top of that, part of the deal is developing a unified account system.

Posted

What kind of games do you think they'll do? I think they'll be freemium type games similar to Pokemon Shuffle with micro transactions.

Posted
They're using another company so it doesn't take resources away from traditional gaming. On top of that, part of the deal is developing a unified account system.

 

But that could change?

 

Potentially they could see a whole bunch of money to be eaten and it could mean internal development teams.

 

The account system is the best news from all of this.

Posted

This is fantastic news! Will it come to the West?

 

If they could just make a Pokemon trading card game app where I could carry my deck around on my phone, I'd be fucking happy.

Posted

I'm calling it now Mario Maker will be on smart phones too, or an app that allows you to export the level designs to it

 

 

I don't mind having a select few games on smart phones, the ones with simple controls that would work, neither do i mind mario runners or links cross bow training (which was basically a smart phone game, it might have well been on rails)

 

will this shut up the people who think Nintendo should go smart phone? i doubt it

Posted
I don't like the sound of this

 

So negative, where's the positivity?! ;)

 

Anyhoo, it'll be interesting to see what titles come out, I remember speaking to @Zechs Merquise and he had some decent thoughts on what they could do.

Posted

Woke up to a gorgeous, sunny morning, feeling happy.

Then I saw this...

 

However, by now I've thought it through and I'm a bit more positive. Although I still think this shouldn't happen. On the plus side, Nintendo are not going to waste their resources on mobile and it seems we'll finally get unified accounts.

Posted

Though some might not like it, it's probably the smarted and best move Nintendo can make given the current cards they're holding and until they more effectively sort out and address the plethora of issues that constitute their home console situation. It effectively means that done right, it should be easy money for them (which lets face it is something they could do with to tide them over until the next console hits) in the mobile market in Japan where their IPs will be eaten up with the huge growth that's been seen over there in recent years, provided the content is up to scratch which appears to be something that they are keen to focus on.

 

It's definitely the right move in my eyes and from a business perspective, it makes sense as it's hardly going to dilute their IPs if they're going to be co-developing any content going out with DeNA. If anything, it should give them more of a presence and even getting some of their lesser used franchises which they are hesitant about bringing back to home consoles or whatnot on smart devices would give them an idea of whether there is a market for those IPs on a bigger scale.

 

One step forward at least, so long as they don't "Nintendo" it too much, it shouldn't result in any backtracking.

 

Now if only they could sort out their home console situation, but I think that's asking for a miracle at this stage. As I've said, some active input from their subsidiaries (NoA and NoE) and well as making more effective use of those in pursuing and developing more Western appealing titles would be a significant step forward there, but this is a point of discussion for elsewhere.

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