Nintendo CEO re-affirms no smartphone games plan
In an interview, Nintendo's president and chief executive once again said the company has no plans to bring its software titles to any platform other than its own.
If you were hoping to one day grab Super Mario Bros. or other Nintendo hits from your smartphone's app store, the future does not look good.
In an interview last week with Japanese news site Nikkei, Nintendo President and Chief Executive Satoru Iwata reiterated the company's stance against bringing its titles to smartphones versus keeping them on its own hardware.
Iwata said the company was not considering that option, and that if it did, the move would diminish the company's strength in building its hardware and software in-house.
In a translated statement, Iwata acknowledged that offering Nintendo's games on smartphones could prove profitable in the short term, but that it wouldn't play to the company's long-term plans.
Iwata's statements follow that of Nintendo spokesperson Yasuhiro Minagawa, who in July told Bloomberg that the company's strategy for developing games only for its own hardware "hasn't changed and won't change."
Interest in the matter piqued in July following news that the Pokemon Company planned to bring an official Pokemon app to iOS and Android devices. Nintendo owns 32 percent of the Pokemon Company, leading to speculation that the decision was part of a new Nintendo strategy to step into smartphone gaming.
Smartphone gaming has seen a meteoric rise in recent years, with developers creating low-cost titles that can be purchased and downloaded to devices from app stores over cellular networks. That approach contrasts starkly with Nintendo's strategy, which has employed the release of proprietary portable game hardware that mainly depends on the use of game cartridges purchased from retailers. Newer models, such as Nintendo's 3DS, include access to the company's eShop, which lets users download and purchase games, videos, and apps over Wi-Fi.
(Via The Loop)