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Nintendo Faces Investor Pressure to Bring Games to iPhone

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Apr 12, 2001
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Bloomberg reports that Nintendo is facing increasing investor pressure to develop titles for the iPhone and other platforms.
The rift highlights the dilemma President Satoru Iwata faces as consumers shun Nintendo devices to play games on iPhones, iPads and Facebook Inc.'s website. The flop of the 3DS debut prompted the company to slash prices 40 percent in Japan starting today, the first time the games developer has resorted to such a move within six months of a product's debut.
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Nintendo has seen very poor initial sales of its new 3DS platform in the face of slumping DS and Wii sales, resulting in the announcement of a quarterly loss of $328 million late last month. In reaction, Nintendo has slashed prices of its 3DS in order to promote sales, but Bloomberg reports that investors want a more dramatic shift in strategy.

Nintendo's stock, which is currently near a 6 year low, saw a big boost after news last month that an affiliated company of their's, Pokemon Company, announced plans to release a Pokemon-themed iPhone game. Nintendo was quick to deny that they had any involvement and that Nintendo had no plans to bring titles to external platforms. Their stock subsequently saw a corresponding drop. Alternatively, some have suggested that Nintendo should "buy its way into" the smartphone platforms by acquiring companies and technology or developing their own.

Mobile applications and gaming have seen huge growth over the past few years, clearly impacting both Nintendo's and Sony's portable gaming systems. In line with that interest, a number of major acquisitions have taken place with iOS-related companies such as Ngmoco, Open Feint and Chillingo. Despite these trends, according to Bloomberg, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has said that Nintendo will only make titles for its own products as long as he's in charge.


Article Link: Nintendo Faces Investor Pressure to Brings Games to iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/11/nintendo-faces-investor-pressure-to-brings-games-to-iphone/
I need to buy stock in eye correction technology. People staring at their phones is going to make the tech world's eyesight deteriorate faster than it did by staring at computer screens three times farther away.
 
Nintendo better get with the Apple future or it might follow the footsteps of Nokia, Palm, etc.
 
The portable console time has passed, they need to move to the new market (phones/tablets) otherwise they will fail.
 
I really think they have to scrap the 3DS and think bigger this time... the iPod Touch has thousands of games... many of them are of great quality... and for: $1.

If they really wanted to print money, all they have to do is port Pokemon to iOS. I think even Mario 64 can run on the current generation of apple gear too.
 
Maybe if they focused on design and hardware a little more they wouldn't be in this situation.

I like Nintendo but you have to admit that they have UGLY hardware. They can't even compete with Sony much less a device that is also a Phone.
Even their consoles suck. They just aren't the company they used to be and a lot of it is their own fault.

I can't understand why anyone would choose them over the PS Vita .

Do they think Super Mario is so great that its still relevant ? Kids wand to play Call of Duty ...not a stupid ass cartoon.

WAKE UP NINTENDO ,...Your committing suicide !
 
tekker said:
I really think they have to scrap the 3DS and think bigger this time... the iPod Touch has thousands of games... many of them are of great quality... and for: $1.
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Yeah, I know loads of people that have spent thousands of dollars on those amazing iOS titles... oh wait... no, no I don't.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8L1)

Not likely to happen- this long but brilliant article from 2005 explains why.
 
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Get Modern!

Nintendo really needs to step up on their game. The 3DS was a flop so far because it has poor battery, it's as big as an original DS, and there are no good games until if not late this year, then early next year. The Wii is failing partly because it EOL next year. But the reason it's really declining is because it can only do 480p. No DVD playback, no 1080p, stupid friend codes, and the Kinect is way superior to the Wii Remote (especially the plus, that thing was just a stupid gimmick). Plus, the excellent games for Xbox get made into crappy things (like Call of Duty) that barely do anything close to the Xbox versions. They need to allow more freedom of content like Microsoft and Sony. They also need to focus semi-less on families and more on hardcore gamers with the Wii U (P.S. Nintendo, change the name, it's just stupid). Also, the 3DS games are just too expensive compared to mobile platforms where games are either free or under $15 (mostly under $5). They really need to just make something like Super Mario 3DS for the iPhone without 3D and a little more designed for touch controls. That said, I would really love to play Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 on an iPad with a Wii Remote since it is bluetooth powered (as the jailbreak community does with N64 and older consoles).
 
The smartphone market would be such a hit for Nintendo. Take some of the posters in this thread for example, already mentioning how they'd buy the classics they loved.

I would too, seriously. I would drop a big amount of money on some of Nintendo's games, as soon as it happened. I know many little kids (around age 6-9) and they don't have DSs. They have iPod Touches, and I see them playing games like Angry Birds. When I was younger I had a Gameboy, but that's just not how things are now.
 
Err0xx said:
They already did both of these things. Oh wait, that's on Android, not iOS. Silly me.
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Nintendo didn't. Developers did. And the N64 emulators have a lot of problems running some games.

If Nintendo themselves made solid ports of their games to iOS, it'd be amazing.
 
Yumunum said:
The smartphone market would be such a hit for Nintendo. Take some of the posters in this thread for example, already mentioning how they'd buy the classics they loved.

I would too, seriously. I would drop a big amount of money on some of Nintendo's games, as soon as it happened. I know many little kids (around age 6-9) and they don't have DSs. They have iPod Touches, and I see them playing games like Angry Birds. When I was younger I had a Gameboy, but that's just not how things are now.
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negativzero said:
Zelda can't come fast enough now!!!! :eek:
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portishead said:
Just port classic games to iPhone/iPad with bluetooth controller support. In my dreams.
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talkingfuture said:
Would be good to see Nintendo games on iOS and other platforms for that matter. I think they could do better than Sega if they switched to that strategy.
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musio said:
i'd love zelda on the ipad!
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Actually going that route would be their death. You can perfectly compare their situation to the once poor performing Apple. I remember reading all those lines like "open OS X for licensing".

If Nintendo lost their one and only differentiating factor, their game IP, they are plain dead due to the fact that they pissed off all Core gamers. The Wii is nothing but a bloody joke - and after the novelty wears off you don't use it anymore. (having all three current gen consoles at home I know what I'm talking about).

And porting games to iOS is NOT a cash cow. The price model just plain sucks for big studios. Google a little about L.A. Noire (which btw sucked in my mind) - how many copies were sold and how Team Bondi still made a big loss. It's all over the games news.

And I rather take dedicated games over casual 1$-Angry Bird stuff any day.
 
Nintendo games without buttons. No thank you. Also will people buy a £30 Mario game when Angry birds etc are free?
 
Nintendo makes money on their console sales and exclusive content for those consoles. The 3DS may be an exception as it it rumoured that Nintendo will sell it at a loss but given all the money they have from Wii and other hits, they can wear it. Let's wait for the 3DS software library to mature first before we write it off as a flop.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5288d Safari/7534.48.3)

Nintendo bringing games to iOS would be HUGE as few companies can compete with their legendary IPs. But will it happen, no. Because it's a Japanese company and Japanese companies are too proud to admit that a competitor might have a great product.
 
RedReplicant said:
The portable console time has passed, they need to move to the new market (phones/tablets) otherwise they will fail.
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It has less to do with the market and more the fact that the 3DS just really isn't up to snuff.

Unless there is some kind of official gamepad attachement, portable gaming won't die... and the tablet certainly won't be the one to kill it (smart phones are more likely). The depth of games are extremely limited by just having a multi touch screen.

I've gotta say, I'm enjoying Nintendo fall flat on their face. I sat in line for the Wii from 7:30am to freaking midnight to get it on launch day. I was the first in line.. I was expecting a system that would change gaming and create brand new genres of games never possible before. Instead Nintendo flipped off the hardcore gamers and went on the casual train, I knew the bottom would eventually fall out the casuals and here we are.
 
This is the real problem for Nintendo

If you wanted to purchase one of these type of devices...


What would you choose ?

This Awesome well made full screen beast


Sony-PS-Vita.jpg



Or this rinky dinky plastic joke with a tiny screen ....2 tiny screens

06-15-103dspress.jpg
 
Nintendo needs to adapt to change and bring their Mario brothers franchise to the iOS platform. There are currently 200 MM iOS devices and gaming is an integral part of iPods, iPhones, and iPads. iPods have already surpassed Nintendo Ds, PSP, and other mobile gaming devices as the preferred hardware to play games + consume their social life. People will gladly fork out money for the games because for them it ha various childhood memories attached and so forth. People need to realize that although many games on the Mac AppStore are free, they are actually funded by the annoying ads you get after every move, etc. I would rather pay for my game and not be interrupted by the "commercial breaks"

Bottom line : Nintendo bringing their most successful franchise Mario Brothers to the iOS platform will help revive their slumping business and it can easily surpass angry birds fame.
 
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