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iOS and Android Grab 58% of U.S. Portable Gaming Revenue

layte said:
I find it strange that many of the uninformed people hooting and hollering that Nintendo should sell up, or lower themselves to be yet another 3rd party software house, are the very same people that like to mock Michael Dell for stating that Apple should have sold up and given the money back to the shareholders.
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Business as usual on this site I'm afraid.
They've been here before. In the mid 90's "Nintendo are going to die!", in the early 2000's "Nintendo are going the way of Sega!".
From 2008-2011 "Mobile gaming will destroy Nintendo!" all whilst they were selling 50 million £30 games (just the Pokemon series, you're welcome to tally up the Zelda, Mario and Wii Sports sales too).
2011 they post their first loss in 20 years, before the influx of their AAA games are released.
It's like freakin groundhog day man.
 
z3r0 said:
Two things could happen:

1) Apple will buy Nintendo or
2) Nintendo starts creating iOS games
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What does Nintendo have other than a patent portfolio that would be of value to Apple?

It makes no sense for Apple to get into the game software business because Apple need to avoid competing with their 3rd party developers -- except with regard to core system software.

My guess is that Nintendo will fail in a few years.
 
Okay, awesome... I'll just be over here playing Super Mario 3D Land while the rest of the world is playing Angry Birds Christmas Edition.

Nintendo's franchises aren't going anywhere, keep dreaming that the next Zelda game will come to iOS at 99 cents.
 
Two things make this chart far less useful:

The figures are estimates based on estimates based on extremely limited samples of data (is Flurry even still allowed to collect data from apps?).

The fact that it's percentage market share and not absolute revenue means no one can make any conclusions about the degree of any business gains.
 
I personally won't be buying Nintendo's handhelds anymore after purchasing the GBC, GBA and NDS on release date each time. My iPhone more than fills that mobile gaming need seeing as how I always have it with me and the only time I would play the 3DS would be when I'm at home which is when I'd rather just be playing on a console. For the case that I do need to be mobile around my house, the Wii U will further my lack of need for a dedicated portable game player as you can play it without being attached to the TV it is running off of (so long as you're in the same room).

I love Nintendo's games but I'm just going to be sticking with their consoles from here on out.
 
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layte said:
Nintendo are in a transitional period. Wii sales are declining, while development of the successor is taking large amounts of resources.
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Wii sales are declining only because everyone that wants one has one and Nintendo has announced their next system.

This has been happening since Atari announced the 5200... :eek:
 
Tailpike1153 said:
It may be me being stupid. But how does the head of Nintendo's DS division still have a job with marksetshare loss like that?
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Easy. You don't count mobile phone game apps as part of portable gaming and if anybody says otherwise, repeat after me. "LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
 
 
*LTD* said:
Nintendo's problem:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20003275-243/30-best-ipad-games/

http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/219929/top-9-rpgs-on-the-ipad-and-iphone/

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/across-age-dx/id387190022?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dead-space-for-ipad/id396019894?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/modern-combat-3-fallen-nation/id442522082?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/galaxy-on-fire-2-hd/id465072566?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/starbase-orion/id438375580?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/warm-gun/id422088284?mt=8

That, and every other damn thing iOS (and Android) devices can do.
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Only you LTD would put pointless links to try to make a failing point.

Those games you link to they make penies of the mobile game for iOS games.

I also question if you even read the article about Nintendo's losses. It is because of the Wii and strong yen.
 
flottenheimer said:
... but is Nintendo's revenue down?

Their market share might be down, but has the market grown?
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They've lost $1 billion recently, accompanied by a 7% slide in share. And it's far from over. They are already forecasting a $200+ million loss going into the next year.
 
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blackpond said:
The dawn of the indy game developer. This is poetic justice.

Anyone that's ever looked into developing for PSP, Nintendo DS or the Nintendo/Sony consoles understands what a true walled garden looks like...
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I totally agree. Some friends and I started trying to develop an Indy game... Never made it :/ too many barriers to entry. Now, though, we are thinking about moving over to iOS and starting. It's a true godsend.
 
lilcosco08 said:
Or neither. Nintendo is fine doing what they do best.
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Which is making low-graphic child-oriented games.

Sorry, I'm not a huge fan of Nintendo, I like Playstation but I haven't been incredibly amazed with what they have to offer with mobile gaming.

iOS games are, Nice. Nothing fantastic, But not crappy either. I like games like Angry Birds, But when it comes to shooter styled games, They just feel very uncomfortable to me.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Only you LTD would put pointless links to try to make a failing point.

Those games you link to they make penies of the mobile game for iOS games.

I also question if you even read the article about Nintendo's losses. It is because of the Wii and strong yen.
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That's the reason their PR dept. has been pumping out for the press for the past two years. It's laughable
 
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/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Apple should try to sign Nintendo as an exclusive to iOS.
 
 
Convenience is king.

In the past few years these have been your choices:
Dedicated game device:
-Costs $150-$200
-Has limited online and messaging capability
-Has games that cost ~$15 a pop that you have to go out and physically buy

Mobile computing device:
-Costs $200
-Can often do email, messaging, or act as a phone
-Has games that range from $0 to $10 that you automatically download

Yes, the quality of games on a PSP are superior, but most adults (who are the people buying these devices nowadays) do not purchase a mobile gaming system for deep, involved games.

If I want to play street fighter, or final fantasy then I will do it on a TV screen instead of straining my eyes and getting motion sickness on a 4" LCD, or tiring my arms with a 10" tablet.

iOS/Android business model allows for much lower cost casual games. The royalties and cost of physical media alone on a DS/Sony title probably put you at $5+

This is a case of newer being more efficient for the consumer
 
Certinfy said:
Huge gamer here but I just can't take gaming seriously on a mobile, DS or PSP. I really do think that will change with the PS Vita though. :)
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There are two categories: hardcore and casual. Maybe more. I think mobile is capturing casual. While consoles keep the hardcore gamers.

I personally like both. Some games are just better on a big screen. Gliding as Batman through Arkham City wouldn't be the same on my iPhone... As flinging a bird at pigs would be awkward with a controller...
 
Misleading. Nintendo is in between platforms.

And the iOS/Android grab is probably growing the market as much or more than taking share from Nintendo.

Also probably doesn't count used market (which of course isn't helpful to Nintendo) nor probably any digital content being purchased on Nintendo platforms.

It is pretty obvious with the 3DS software Nintendo has in the pipeline the next 6-12 months that their new platform will be much stronger than it is today.

I just don't think many bought a smartphone thinking that they can finally replace their DS. They bought it because it was a lot better than their current phone.

Sure iOS/Android will take those who bought a DS and never really used it away from Nintendo.

The lack of Nintendo games, buttons, dpad, stick, dual screens, ... will keep the 3DS doing pretty good.

Plus hell it could convert some gamers who want more than $1 games to the dedicated handheld side of things.
 
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trip1ex said:
Misleading. Nintendo is in between platforms.
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And RIM is uh . . . "in-between" platforms as well . . . LOL

Whichever euphemism makes you feel better.

How much longer is Nintendo going to be "in-between" before consumers no longer care?

What revolutionary game-changer do they have planned to turn things around?
 
tctony said:
You guys are fanboys if you think Nintendo is going to go out of business because they don't make games for iOS.

Nintendo will be just fine. People buying 99¢ App Store games were never their customers anyway.
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Actually, no, Nintendo's in major trouble. Their 3DS was a dog, and they had to drop the price big time to even start moving existing inventory. Their value prop is in the toilet because no one wants to spend $150+ on a device that does only one thing, and then $40 on every mobile game when they can buy games on the phones they already own, and get 10 or more titles for the same per-unit price. Saying they will be fine just like the people who said AOL would be fine indefinitely when they kept charging by the amount of data used.

Also, aside from a handful of company-specific titles, they have no library to speak of. Any game that comes out on the Wii is usually available on the 360 or the PS3, and many MANY mobile games are headed in the same direction. They will eventually be like Sega, and develop software for others' devices.
 
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