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Nintendo Faces Investor Pressure to Bring Games to iPhone
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So can I get Super Mario Land 3D or Mario Kart 7 on the Vita? No? Well, looks like the 3DS it is!
Along with Atari; Sega and SNK have stopped making systems and sold games only. All three are doing alright, but are much smaller than they used to be.
Atari screwed up with a jillion versions of their system in a short time frame, like Sega. SNK couldn't keep folks interested in the Neo Geo as 3D became more popular than high quality 2D.
Of the three, only Sega and SNK are still the same company. Atari is Atari in name only (they got brought out by Infrogames who changed their name to Atari, much like how Cingular brought out AT&T and then decided to change their name to AT&T).
Maybe somebody's already said this (didn't really feel like reading 10 pages of posts 
) but Nintendo *could* make an accessory for the iPhone to solve the lack-of-gaming-buttons problem. Maybe something like a nunchuck that you can hold in one hand while still holding your phone in the other. It'd probably be silly to make a full gaming controller for such a small device. But its hard for me to imagine, say, Ocarina of Time on an iPhone with only a touchscreen and accelerometer as inputs.
Anyway, as much as I hate the idea of Nintendo selling out I think it'd be mega awesome to have Mario on my iPhone.
) but Nintendo *could* make an accessory for the iPhone to solve the lack-of-gaming-buttons problem. Maybe something like a nunchuck that you can hold in one hand while still holding your phone in the other. It'd probably be silly to make a full gaming controller for such a small device. But its hard for me to imagine, say, Ocarina of Time on an iPhone with only a touchscreen and accelerometer as inputs. Anyway, as much as I hate the idea of Nintendo selling out I think it'd be mega awesome to have Mario on my iPhone.
I'm with Satoru Iwata on this one. Nintendo putting their games on another platform would be suicide. First of all, about 90% of the ports of console games to iOS have just been terrible. Virtual controllers are simply a pain to use and not fun. iOS needs games made for iOS. It's not a console system and it needs developers who understand that. Now if Nintendo wanted to create some entirely new games for iOS then that could be great, but more than likely it would just be "play Super Mario 3 on your iPhone" or Mario Kart iOS edition.
Console systems are not going away any time soon, despite the naysayers. I'd rather play a real game on my PS2 or PSP than I would on my iPod touch. Sure it's fun for disposable games like Angry Birds, but for real games the experience doesn't compare, the screen is too small and there's no analog stick. iPad on the other hand is too big and still lacks and analog stick. Nintendo needs to step up their game in the console market if they want to stay relevant. They've been beaten at their own game by their competitors. The Kinect has made the Wii irrelevant and the PS Vita isn't even out yet and it's already made the 3DS irrelevant. And their answer is the WiiU? Really? That's why they are failing. The Wii was so successful because it was affordable, innovative and it brought gaming to "normal people." They need to go back to that formula if they want to succeed.
Console systems are not going away any time soon, despite the naysayers. I'd rather play a real game on my PS2 or PSP than I would on my iPod touch. Sure it's fun for disposable games like Angry Birds, but for real games the experience doesn't compare, the screen is too small and there's no analog stick. iPad on the other hand is too big and still lacks and analog stick. Nintendo needs to step up their game in the console market if they want to stay relevant. They've been beaten at their own game by their competitors. The Kinect has made the Wii irrelevant and the PS Vita isn't even out yet and it's already made the 3DS irrelevant. And their answer is the WiiU? Really? That's why they are failing. The Wii was so successful because it was affordable, innovative and it brought gaming to "normal people." They need to go back to that formula if they want to succeed.
Nintendo has never, ever sold their systems at a lost. You have to understand that they're a video game company, not a big corporation that started a video game division. It is a fact that Nintendo have never sold their systems at a loss, and even during the bad Game Cube days, they were probably the only company of the big 3 that made a profit, since the PS2 didn't finally start making a profit until 5 years into the systems life, despite how extremely popular the ps2 was.
Hate to burst everyone's bubble here - but ain't going to happen.
Huge Nintendo and Apple fan here. Been following both for a long time.
1) Almost every 5 years "investors" call for Nintendo to bring their games to other platforms. They have never, ever done this. The Pokemon Company is a spinoff company that handles the massive moneymaker that is Pokemon licensing.
2) Nintendo, like Apple, differentiates by creating hardware and software that work seamlessly together. They literally design their hardware around game concepts they want to explore. This decade's old philosophy is basically DNA to the company. Do research on ANY of their R&D (they have a series called Iwata Asks) and you'll see they have a very synergetic approach to things.
3) Nintendo has been a very vocal opponent to the "$1 game" revolution iOS has brought about. As many have said - it's very difficult to make money in this situation. More than that - and this is what Nintendo has said - there's a possibility that this type of marketplace devalues the types of experience traditional game companies make. I know this is mainly a matter of opinion - but they have a point. The best game on iOS can't even come close to most of the top tier games available for the Wii (at least in the traditional gaming sense). iOS has some great games - but they're in a different league.
4) Most importantly - Nintendo just came off an unprecedented five year run. The Wii sold like gangbusters for them - and they were making a profit on that hardware from day one (this is very atypical in the video game market... hardware tends to be sold at a loss and money is made in software). Combine that with the success of the DS over the past 5 years (again, sold at a profit) and you have a company that is sitting on quite a bit of cash (like Apple). Currency exchange may be killing them right now - but it hasn't even made a dent in the war chest they built from Wii/DS. They've been through tough times before (they had to stop manufacturing the GameCube because sales were so low) - but they always manage to stay patient and come back relevant.
In short - no way - no how. They would never ever make an iOS game. Companion applications? Perhaps... but I wouldn't even take that bet.
Huge Nintendo and Apple fan here. Been following both for a long time.
1) Almost every 5 years "investors" call for Nintendo to bring their games to other platforms. They have never, ever done this. The Pokemon Company is a spinoff company that handles the massive moneymaker that is Pokemon licensing.
2) Nintendo, like Apple, differentiates by creating hardware and software that work seamlessly together. They literally design their hardware around game concepts they want to explore. This decade's old philosophy is basically DNA to the company. Do research on ANY of their R&D (they have a series called Iwata Asks) and you'll see they have a very synergetic approach to things.
3) Nintendo has been a very vocal opponent to the "$1 game" revolution iOS has brought about. As many have said - it's very difficult to make money in this situation. More than that - and this is what Nintendo has said - there's a possibility that this type of marketplace devalues the types of experience traditional game companies make. I know this is mainly a matter of opinion - but they have a point. The best game on iOS can't even come close to most of the top tier games available for the Wii (at least in the traditional gaming sense). iOS has some great games - but they're in a different league.
4) Most importantly - Nintendo just came off an unprecedented five year run. The Wii sold like gangbusters for them - and they were making a profit on that hardware from day one (this is very atypical in the video game market... hardware tends to be sold at a loss and money is made in software). Combine that with the success of the DS over the past 5 years (again, sold at a profit) and you have a company that is sitting on quite a bit of cash (like Apple). Currency exchange may be killing them right now - but it hasn't even made a dent in the war chest they built from Wii/DS. They've been through tough times before (they had to stop manufacturing the GameCube because sales were so low) - but they always manage to stay patient and come back relevant.
In short - no way - no how. They would never ever make an iOS game. Companion applications? Perhaps... but I wouldn't even take that bet.
hand held game systems are a thing of the past. the CPU's and other chips are essentially the same as the idevices and android phones but the software is gimped.
why spend $200 or more on a device that will only play $40 games when you can spend it on a device that does everything. and from what i remember every new generation of handheld game systems made you buy the games again. unlike iOS and android
re investors and peeps demand iphone version of games
love investor revolts
japan still has it - but lost some mojo - she'll come back
peeps require stuff for iphone - yes
the shape of things to come
"empire..." - queensryche
love investor revolts
japan still has it - but lost some mojo - she'll come back
peeps require stuff for iphone - yes
the shape of things to come
"empire..." - queensryche
I know that all of you at MacRumors are stupid Apple fanboys, but this is ridiculous. Nintendo is doing better than both Sony and Microsoft, and no one wants to play games on a crappy little iPhone. Seriously, Cut the Rope vs. Pokémon. Hmm, I wonder which is better. Fanboys.
Not sure I buy the need for Niintendo to stay in the hardware business.
Apple is the only company out there making money with hardware. And that seems to be because Apple makes the whole damn thing: hardware, software and services.
Nintendo should port classics to iOS and Android. A huge percentage of iOS owners have grown up with Nintendo. There is money on the table there.
Then, Nintendo should drop consoles and move into online hosted gaming as a subscription service. The Zelda and Mario fans would pay $9.99 per month to play exclusive titles.
Gaming consoles are over, as are dedicated portable gaming devices. The next generation of consoles will be in the cloud. The next gen portable is your phone.
Apple is the only company out there making money with hardware. And that seems to be because Apple makes the whole damn thing: hardware, software and services.
Nintendo should port classics to iOS and Android. A huge percentage of iOS owners have grown up with Nintendo. There is money on the table there.
Then, Nintendo should drop consoles and move into online hosted gaming as a subscription service. The Zelda and Mario fans would pay $9.99 per month to play exclusive titles.
Gaming consoles are over, as are dedicated portable gaming devices. The next generation of consoles will be in the cloud. The next gen portable is your phone.
might make sense for some people, namely casual gamers and children. But people who actually want physical controls and the best first party games will be buying handhelds for a long time.
Been a Nintendo fan forever, bought all their hardware, even the virtual boy. One thing people don't know about Nintendo is that their first party games have annually outsold the top third party (usually EA or Activision). Combined sales for all platforms, not just on Nintendo hardware. This is quite impressive considering that Nintendo first party games can only be played on Nintendo hardware.
That's going to change this year since we're eight months in and they really don't have a hit, 3DS isn't doing so hot, and vanilla DS&Wii are significantly winding down.
The thing about Nintendo handhelds is that they've carried the company during the worst of times. When virtual boy flopped and n64 failed to be a hit in Japan (also had a rough time with 3rd parties), the gameboy pocket and Pokemon saved the day and led to the gameboy color which sold quite well despite being significantly antiquated even then. When the Gamecube wasn't selling so well, Gameboy Advance sales made up for it.
Nintendo's handheld dominance hit it's highest point with the DS. Many gamers expected the 3DS to repeat this success despite skepticism from analysts because of smart phones. I bought a 3DS and immediately had buyer's remorse. (I also consider myself a core gamer)
Core gamers do not want to admit the reality that the playing field has changed. iOS is a contender. I realized this during a four hour plane trip after being too lazy to get the PSP from my carry on in favor of gaming on my iPhone. There are several high quality full length games. You can get use to touch control. Normally you always have your phone with you (most people, especially adults, aren't going to lug around a DS everywhere they go).
iOS can and will do better as more people realize this. I was in denial for a while myself. The type of casual and mini games that made DS a success can all be played on iOS without a stylus and with multi touch. What I didn't like about the 3DS was that the resolution was low, lower than a PSP. My retina display has spoiled me. I prefer it over the gimmicky 3d effect (which has ghosting btw and a slight turn of the device when using gyro controls will kill the effect as will pulling off SSF4 moves).
I'll use an example, Ridge Racer. I know Ridge Racer isn't Gran Turismo or Real Racing 2 for that matter, but I enjoy it. On PSP it ran at 60fps and on 3DS it runs 30fps with a lower poly count (but better lighting). Now the iOS version was based of the PSP version and was disappointing at first but surprisingly Namco updated it with more tracks, a better framerate, improved controls, and RETINA support. The 3DS version cannot compete, I wound up selling it.
Sorry for the tl;dr, what I'm trying to say is I would love to have Nintendo games on my iPhone. Even a retina port of Mario Kart DS with game center support (and fixed snaking) would be amazing. I'd pay $15 for it.
Ridge Racer Accelerated (iPhone version, retina display updated earlier this year)
Ridge Racer PSP (released in late 2004)
Ridge Racer 3DS (release earlier this year)
Ridge Racer Accelerated is based off the PSP version. It originally ran slow and to my eyes looked like the resolution was lower than the native 3GS display. It's been updated to include more tracks, improved controls, game center achievements, and retina display. It also now runs 30-60fps (PSP version ran at 60). Ridge Racer 3DS runs at 30fps and the HUD is generic and 16-bit looking. It does have more tracks (15 vs 11 on iPhone). Still, the 3DS version is $30 and the iPhone version is $12 with all the DLC. The iPad verison is freemium.
That's going to change this year since we're eight months in and they really don't have a hit, 3DS isn't doing so hot, and vanilla DS&Wii are significantly winding down.
The thing about Nintendo handhelds is that they've carried the company during the worst of times. When virtual boy flopped and n64 failed to be a hit in Japan (also had a rough time with 3rd parties), the gameboy pocket and Pokemon saved the day and led to the gameboy color which sold quite well despite being significantly antiquated even then. When the Gamecube wasn't selling so well, Gameboy Advance sales made up for it.
Nintendo's handheld dominance hit it's highest point with the DS. Many gamers expected the 3DS to repeat this success despite skepticism from analysts because of smart phones. I bought a 3DS and immediately had buyer's remorse. (I also consider myself a core gamer)
Core gamers do not want to admit the reality that the playing field has changed. iOS is a contender. I realized this during a four hour plane trip after being too lazy to get the PSP from my carry on in favor of gaming on my iPhone. There are several high quality full length games. You can get use to touch control. Normally you always have your phone with you (most people, especially adults, aren't going to lug around a DS everywhere they go).
iOS can and will do better as more people realize this. I was in denial for a while myself. The type of casual and mini games that made DS a success can all be played on iOS without a stylus and with multi touch. What I didn't like about the 3DS was that the resolution was low, lower than a PSP. My retina display has spoiled me. I prefer it over the gimmicky 3d effect (which has ghosting btw and a slight turn of the device when using gyro controls will kill the effect as will pulling off SSF4 moves).
I'll use an example, Ridge Racer. I know Ridge Racer isn't Gran Turismo or Real Racing 2 for that matter, but I enjoy it. On PSP it ran at 60fps and on 3DS it runs 30fps with a lower poly count (but better lighting). Now the iOS version was based of the PSP version and was disappointing at first but surprisingly Namco updated it with more tracks, a better framerate, improved controls, and RETINA support. The 3DS version cannot compete, I wound up selling it.
Sorry for the tl;dr, what I'm trying to say is I would love to have Nintendo games on my iPhone. Even a retina port of Mario Kart DS with game center support (and fixed snaking) would be amazing. I'd pay $15 for it.
Ridge Racer Accelerated (iPhone version, retina display updated earlier this year)
Ridge Racer PSP (released in late 2004)
Ridge Racer 3DS (release earlier this year)
Ridge Racer Accelerated is based off the PSP version. It originally ran slow and to my eyes looked like the resolution was lower than the native 3GS display. It's been updated to include more tracks, improved controls, game center achievements, and retina display. It also now runs 30-60fps (PSP version ran at 60). Ridge Racer 3DS runs at 30fps and the HUD is generic and 16-bit looking. It does have more tracks (15 vs 11 on iPhone). Still, the 3DS version is $30 and the iPhone version is $12 with all the DLC. The iPad verison is freemium.
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I know that all of you at MacRumors are stupid Apple fanboys, but this is ridiculous. Nintendo is doing better than both Sony and Microsoft, and no one wants to play games on a crappy little iPhone. Seriously, Cut the Rope vs. Pokémon. Hmm, I wonder which is better. Fanboys.
It's always interesting to read video game related news on Macrumors, because of the opinions of people who are quite frankly not familiar at all with the video game industry. Their comments use generic logic that really don't relate to certain things, and come off as people who are ignorant about the whole video game world. That's why it's good to not really care about the opinions of others, no matter what the subject is, since even though it's hard to realize on the surface, any random subject probably require a deeper level of understanding.
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No way. Nintendo are a great brand for video games but not for a phone, at least not for adults. I know about all us adults playing video games but even we would propably choose any other brand of phone out of pure vanity.
Besides, the Nintendo phone would be far more limited than anything by Apple.
We need a new CEO
"Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has said that Nintendo will only make titles for its own products as long as he's in charge"
Time for a new president.
"Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has said that Nintendo will only make titles for its own products as long as he's in charge"
Time for a new president.
You may have sounded sarcastic to some people, but what you are saying is very true, specially with people who watch their devices at night in the darkness. The distance rule to watch TV that has existed since many years ago applied to CRT displays (TVs and Computer Monitors), due to the radiation these produced.
With an LCD display, the problem is forcing your eyes to read from a smaller screen, and the concentration of light in a smaller are of your sight-field. This would eventually wear out your vision sensors (forgot the medical name for these).
Also, looking down for a long time increases the blood pressure in the eye, eventually causing it to change its shape, which would affect the correct focus resulting in blurry vision.
But that's the REASON it happens. Because if you have more than one console as a lot of people do, you can only buy it on that console.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
The 3DS is an anomaly. Nintendo has a fantastic reputation for systems and have had fewer flops than Apple. The Wii sold to an incredible number of people and they didn't have to take a loss on each system (looking at you, other consoles). The problem is that the dedicated handheld gaming party is over. It's sad because those games from nintendo are WAY better than anything on iOS, but people want to carry one do-it-all device and casual, low budget, cheap games are far more attainable. They're also fun enough. The iPod touch is a WAY better deal (with great hardware, cheap games, browser, iPod, all those apps) than a gameboy.
Nintendo should stick to living room consoles. They know hits. Keep the mario, donkey kong, metroid games coming. Don't license their games to anyone. People saying they should be like the PS3 or XBox and drop kids games don't know anything about differentiating. Why would you buy a Nintendo over a PS3 if it tried to be a PS3?
Nintendo needs to expand their in house games departments and pump out more of those. Lower the price of their games JUST a little, and stick to in home consoles, add HD. And (wish list) add a Blu-Ray player.
The 3DS is an anomaly. Nintendo has a fantastic reputation for systems and have had fewer flops than Apple. The Wii sold to an incredible number of people and they didn't have to take a loss on each system (looking at you, other consoles). The problem is that the dedicated handheld gaming party is over. It's sad because those games from nintendo are WAY better than anything on iOS, but people want to carry one do-it-all device and casual, low budget, cheap games are far more attainable. They're also fun enough. The iPod touch is a WAY better deal (with great hardware, cheap games, browser, iPod, all those apps) than a gameboy.
Nintendo should stick to living room consoles. They know hits. Keep the mario, donkey kong, metroid games coming. Don't license their games to anyone. People saying they should be like the PS3 or XBox and drop kids games don't know anything about differentiating. Why would you buy a Nintendo over a PS3 if it tried to be a PS3?
Nintendo needs to expand their in house games departments and pump out more of those. Lower the price of their games JUST a little, and stick to in home consoles, add HD. And (wish list) add a Blu-Ray player.
Thanks for the good laugh even if you were being serious. Oh kids.
Sorry, not a kid.
And there is nothing even remotely funny about a once great company that has done zero to keep itself relevant over more than half a decade, and has a leader that has sworn not to improve the company using the only realistic tactic they still possess. This reality dawning is difficult, I get it, but 5 years have passed during which Nintendo has done nothing to improve its situation, meanwhile a competitor is single handedly making them irrelevant.
Nothing funny about it at all.