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Nintendo Finally Considers Smartphone Move After Third Straight Annual Loss
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It isn't restricted solely to Sony, all of HTC's flagships can access it as well.
That is the reason why the remaining competitors are not (yet) leaving the console business for good. Microsoft and Sony can (or could) afford to do a loss-leader strategy and in doing so increasing the market entry costs for everyone else including Nintendo. Who's consoles became known to be less powerful, because Nintendo couldn't afford to run big losses for a long time.
Marketing and Market is the same. If you can't convince people to buy your product, you can't sell it. I bet people who own a PlayStation are more likely to also buy the Wii U than the average population. So Nintendo is not at war with Sony, but with staying relevant in a changing world.
„Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory already won and to treat Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the "enemy of the future".“ (MR)
And one if not the best way to turn the company around, is to bring their franchises on the existing mobile platforms with hundreds of millions of units in daily use. The profits from Super Mario for iOS could even finance a loss-leader strategy for the next Nintendo console generation.
Yeah I looked it up after I posted. It's PS Mobile, Sony's app store equivalent for cheap stuff that could run in a browser. Stuff you won't find there - AAA games, PS1 Classics, games with high pricepoints. You want those you still have to buy their handhelds and consoles.
This is a fractured strategy. Sony is treating their mobile platform as a separate market and keeping it isolated from the console/handheld markets by refusing to mix the IP on each.
If Nintendo created their own Android app store but refused to stick Mario on it in any form, they'd be doing what Sony is doing with PS Mobile. Unless PS Mobile actually becomes a market leader for digital distribution, that kind of thing makes no sense. It's having one foot in the door, one foot out.
Nintendo can afford a loss leader strategy and they're already doing it. IE They pricedropped the 3DS and it's now a success. The console industry loss-leader strategy is basically software subsidizing hardware. Nintendo has a hand in both markets so there's no reason why they can't do what MS and Sony are doing.
Far as Nintendo marketing, they've made a ton of mistakes all the way down to the naming, where consumers don't even realize the Wii U is different from the Wii. Even with a year headstart, the Wii U has sold roughly the same # of units as the PS4 in few months. They need to increase household penetration and the best way to do this is perhaps a hardware pricedrop and then let quality games sell the hardware (same strategy they used with the 3DS). The whole games sell hw reality is why their 3D World timing was a big mistake. The game won GOTY awards and would've been a system seller if not for the fact its release was overshadowed by the XB1 and PS4 launches.
Iwata views Apple as the enemy of the future because unlike MS and Sony, Apple's goal is to commoditize software. You commoditize something, you drive down its value. Apple owns zero IP so they can shrug when their app store drives down the price of software from $40 AAA games to freemium disposable junk.
iOS has a huge install base, but to reach that install base, Nintendo would be taking $40 legacy IP and pricedropping it to $5-10 to be market competitive, 30% of which would go to Apple. Mario would effectively become a budget brand like Angry Birds.
please please please: I need zelda on my iphone (without jailbreakibg and loosing my savegames every ios update)
In the end, it's all about the games.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are stagnating, putting out the same variation of gameplay year after year. They are so stuck on stats (looking at you Sony and MS particulary) and spend too much time looking at stats and spreadsheets. Oooooh xxxGhz, xxxResolution... Ooooh big number... Remember the old "bit" war? Ooohhh 16bit, Ooooh 32bit and then Atari came out with the Jaguar! Ooooohhh 64bit it is way better than 16bit! Hell no it wasn't! You know why? Because the games stank! They were ****!
People want to play game, not compare stats sheet. Before, console were about casual gaming. Something you could pick up after work or school and waste an hour or two. Now, every big game is about training, farming for item and killing humans in the most realistic military setting. Which bring me to another point: people are starting to get tired of seeing war images or terrorist acts. With all the potential for great graphics on the new generation system, all that we are getting are drab and grey images of destruction. No colour, no beauty, no fun...
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are stagnating, putting out the same variation of gameplay year after year. They are so stuck on stats (looking at you Sony and MS particulary) and spend too much time looking at stats and spreadsheets. Oooooh xxxGhz, xxxResolution... Ooooh big number... Remember the old "bit" war? Ooohhh 16bit, Ooooh 32bit and then Atari came out with the Jaguar! Ooooohhh 64bit it is way better than 16bit! Hell no it wasn't! You know why? Because the games stank! They were ****!
People want to play game, not compare stats sheet. Before, console were about casual gaming. Something you could pick up after work or school and waste an hour or two. Now, every big game is about training, farming for item and killing humans in the most realistic military setting. Which bring me to another point: people are starting to get tired of seeing war images or terrorist acts. With all the potential for great graphics on the new generation system, all that we are getting are drab and grey images of destruction. No colour, no beauty, no fun...
Not entirely true. Look at Pokémon X and Y, it's a 3DS only game, it almost knocked off GTA V as the fastest selling game in history. Not to say GTA V was bad, I thought it was the best. I'm not a Pokémon fan either, but that says something about some of Nintendo's franchises. Also, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Luigi's Mansion, some of these games have broken the traditional Nintendo mold and proves they're willing to try different things. Some of these ideas are only a decade old and Nintendo has been around for a VERY long time.
Maybe you should consider reading the RUMORED Nintendo Fusion. A portable/home console combo, the rumored specs look insane between the DS and Terminal. Again, these are rumors, but I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo goes for the flower power-up next time around, rather than running on the mushroom.
Angry Birds at 99¢ exists whether Nintendo chooses to ignore them or not. One platform or another, Mario has to make the case why he is worth $40 anyway. The only difference is, you don't need to convince people to pay another $300 for the Wii U hardware itself. On the PC we have always had free and paid games co-existing on the same platform.
It isn't a fractured market or whatever, it is the exact same content as the PS Vita's mobile store. I get the same exact games as my buddy does on his Vita, just on a bigger screen and with virtual buttons instead of physical.
It's a step in the right direction and what Nintendo should be offering with it's current downloadable games.
Angry Birds exists at 99 cents because that's the market competitive pricepoint for disposable minigames. Mario exists at $40 because that's the market competitive pricepoint for a AAA handheld game. They're not interchangeable no matter what Pachter says.
Nintendo cuts off hardware, they lose their licensing stream while having to fork off licensing fees themselves. They develop for iOS, they now have to pricedrop to compete in a budget market and the value of their IP degrades. Instead of a $40 Mario AAA game, they're now putting out a $5 Mario minigame with a puny profit margin trying to compete on volume. They also now have to fork over 30% as a distribution cut whereas with the eShop that cut stayed in their pocket.
If they can fix their household penetration problem, it's better for them to stay in hardware. MFG costs will go down over time and the hardware lets them maximize the value of their IP and maintain profit streams associated with owning your own platform.
On the Vita I can play Tearaway, Killzone, Uncharted and AAA games/brands with $40 pricepoints. On PS Mobile, you won't find anything that costs more than a small pizza. Sony won't even stick PS1 classics on PS Mobile. That tells you Sony is treating mobile as an isolated market catering to budget software. Their actual nondisposable IP and anything of value they keep far away from there.
that does sound awesome. i really hope nintendo would get on the horse. for a reason i cannot understand, i love the gamecube.
anyway, the Terminal is where (if at all) they should be heading, and probably add a media connectivity to it like ps4 or xboxone. i still think that there's no real need to invest in a portable console.
Erm... there's already NES and SNES emulation on the iPhone. I play Chrono Trigger on it once in a while. N64 too, although barely.
Granted that's via jailbreak, but still. Who would pay when the ROMs are out there free..?
Personally I would rather have an official version, where the creator, or owner of the game can remake the game for the device. They can integrate other (or better) ways of controlling the game.
Plus, downloading a good emulator and putting the roms on the iPhone are a pain in the ass.
Won't happen. Mario on other platforms (smartphones) would be the very last thing Nintendo would do.
Basically, i appreciate Nintendo's Apple-like attempt for a closed, full-controled eco-system, which only Nintendo can offer.
However, the crucial difference to Apple is: Nintendo can't do hardware. They're a software company. Their hardware products are in pretty much any aspect inferior to its competitors. Lower design quality, outdated specs to give just the two biggest issues.
Nintendo doesn't need to be on smartphones - they have to focus on their games, which are their absolute killer feature, again, and not make consoles meant to be so innovative that they're just confusing after all (Wii U). Instead, HD should've come far sooner for Nintendo systems - not because powerful specs get me horny, but because it sets the game in an even more beautiful light. A game in HD is clearly more fascinating than in low res. After all, there's a reason why our eye is the sense for feeling fascination. Nintendo should've known this if they want to create fascinating games.
Basically, i appreciate Nintendo's Apple-like attempt for a closed, full-controled eco-system, which only Nintendo can offer.
However, the crucial difference to Apple is: Nintendo can't do hardware. They're a software company. Their hardware products are in pretty much any aspect inferior to its competitors. Lower design quality, outdated specs to give just the two biggest issues.
Nintendo doesn't need to be on smartphones - they have to focus on their games, which are their absolute killer feature, again, and not make consoles meant to be so innovative that they're just confusing after all (Wii U). Instead, HD should've come far sooner for Nintendo systems - not because powerful specs get me horny, but because it sets the game in an even more beautiful light. A game in HD is clearly more fascinating than in low res. After all, there's a reason why our eye is the sense for feeling fascination. Nintendo should've known this if they want to create fascinating games.
Half the games?
Great, they don't region locking. Now they can get 15 more sales
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Vita is a flop. Sony should just dump it and make games for Apple!
Derrrrrr.
That's pretty much this entire thread.
If it is only 1 person that does cross region gaming...
I'll do that next time, then. Very good point. I suppose I shouldn't have paid for the original SNES cartridges of the games I play on my iPhone, either.. hmm...
Yay moral police
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Oh, I don't find it a pain. I even edit them occasionally (as with Chrono Trigger). I use iFile on the iPhone and iExplorer on my Mac, maybe that's why I find it easy.
Yay moral police
You do know that downloading old SNES roms is the moral equivalent of eating babies, right?
Spot on. The reason why Apple can keep its business model and be profitable from it is that they produce beautiful and powerful hardware, in addition to software.
I think it all depends on the side dishes...
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What? Nintendo has been doing hardware since 1983. They can do hardware just fine.
If anything, they're more Apple-like than Sony and Microsoft, since they tend to be more focused on the experience, offering up something new, rather than raw specs.
Yup, everybody who downloads ROMs has all the original cartridges. Of course they do.
Perhaps, perhaps not. But I believe in this case, you were speaking directly to me, not everybody else.