Nintendo's First Smartphone Game Due This Year, 5 Planned by March 2017

[GizmoDVD]

No, I'm just poking fun at the very first comment. I highly doubt they'll release anything for a dollar. Just look at Square-Enix's games.

I wasn't implying Nintendo would. They won't. They sell their 25 year old NES games for $5 on their own hardware. The fact is so many people expect them to be free or $1 and that is simply not Nintendo.

Many here still think they will bring their classics to iOS when they already stated they would not. It's selective reading.

 

[Yoshi Yogurt]

These are going to be new distinct titles, and I'm happy with that approach. The best stuff will still be on wiiU and 3DS

 

[Michael Goff]

No, I'm just poking fun at the very first comment. I highly doubt they'll release anything for a dollar. Just look at Square-Enix's games.

Okay, it's just difficult to know who is being serious here and who is being sarcastic. Or maybe I was just being dense.

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Oh, and anyone who says they'd "make millions" by selling it for 1$ might be right. But they'd also be losing a lot of 3DS sales, making it to where they'd likely end the quarter (and maybe even the year) with huge losses. It's a good thing a lot of the people here don't run Nintendo, they'd have killed it already.

 

[nia820]

Nintendo isn't going to release their goodies on the App Store. Nintendo's 1ps sell consoles and handhelds. And Nintendo knows that. Putting their good stuff on the App Store would affect their console and hand held sales.

It's probably going to be a bunch of mini games.

It's very clear the majority of posters in this thread are not gamers and and have very little knowledge on how nintendo or the gaming industry for that matter does things.

A $1 for a Nintendo game? Are you for real. Nintendo is making $60 off their 1ps you think they are going to sell game for that price? Even if it's a extremely watered down port it ain't going to happen.

Their classic games on the m Nintendo shop going for more than that.

Threads like this make me go into gamer rage.

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I just wish it had multitouch. Using the map on the gamepad in Pikmin 3 would be so much more fun with multitouch... having the zoom in/out buttons and no ability to rotate is just lame.

Also, Pokemon seems like a natural fit for iOS. Apart from walking around, most controls are just navigating menus. Picking from 4 choices is pretty each with touch screen virtual buttons. Walking around can be accomplished by just tapping on the ground where you want to walk to (I have not played since second generation, and I never even made it very far in the second generation, so most of my Pokemon experience is with the original Red/Blue. It's not my type of game - I outgrew it a long time ago.)

Dr. Mario could also work well on iOS.

Pokemon isn't a good fit for iOS. Since 4th generation Pokemon has relied on using two screens. Pokemon is custom fitted for DS series. Pokemon on any smartphone is a joke.

 

[jfeathe]

Nintendo has plenty of IPs that are already touchscreen based or that would transition well to smartphones and tablets:

Pushmo and Crashmo
Brain Age
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Wario Ware
Professor Layton
etc.

 

[chr1s60]

The best thing about Nintendo is that they'll take advantage of the system. Best Wii games were from Nintendo, same with the U. These will be amazing.

That's because many of the other games were originally created for other systems and then adapted for Wii. Nintendo made the games specifically for Wii so of course they would work the best.

 

[iChrist]

5 in the next 2 years. Blistering pace.

Quality over quantity. The exact opposite of all the garbage apps on the App Store.

 

[AlecZ]

I would consider it a bit of a surrender move from Nintendo if they were to make full games for iOS. They'd be yielding ground. I hope they know what they're doing because, although I don't really like Nintendo's games after 2004, I'd hate to see part of my childhood take the Sega path.

 

[\-V-/]

I wasn't implying Nintendo would. They won't. They sell their 25 year old NES games for $5 on their own hardware. The fact is so many people expect them to be free or $1 and that is simply not Nintendo.

I agree.

Many here still think they will bring their classics to iOS when they already stated they would not. It's selective reading.

If by "selective reading" you mean most people here only read the title before commenting, then yes.

Okay, it's just difficult to know who is being serious here and who is being sarcastic.

No worries.

 

[RobertMartens]

Just release the mario and zelda for $1 each and you'll make millions!

Just release the mario and zelda for $1 each and you'll make millions!

Hey I was going to say that.


Why Trillions, when you could make Billions!

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Quality over quantity. The exact opposite of all the garbage apps on the App Store.

They have to learn how to program first, and then graduate from high school. These things take time.

 

[Jon-Erich]

5 games in 2 years... what are they smoking?!

What do you expect? They're currently developing games for the Wii U and 3DS. Within the next year, they'll probably begin developing games for the successors to the 3DS and Wii U. On top of that, they're now developing software exclusively for mobile platforms. Over the next two years, that's 5 platforms that Nintendo will be supporting and most of those games will be exclusive to those platforms. That doesn't even count the fact that their mobile games will have to be optimized for both iOS and Android.

It's safe to say that Nintendo's software teams will be very busy over the next several years.

Sega started out a software company, Nintendo has always been a console when they first started electronics, and will probably always will be.

Not exactly. Sega made mechanical arcade games back in the day and then transitioned to electronic arcade games in the 70's. Their experience with arcade hardware development is what led to home console development.

Still, for those of you who think Nintendo is heading in the direction Sega went, keep in mind that the ONLY reason Sega left the hardware business was because they were broke and would have gone bankrupt by mid 2001. Nintendo isn't in that situation. They have all the money that Sega never had. In fact, they just recently started making money again. This is simply a means of expanding their business and brand outreach.

I'm also sure a lot of mobile game developers out there are ******** in their pants right now. Nintendo may not be abandoning it's hardware, but they are still serious about these mobile games. The producer of the Mario Kart series has been assigned to oversee those games. So it's not like they're handing their IP's over to some 3rd rate studio.

 

[Traverse]

That would be a good start, but I'm hoping I can play a full Mario or Zelda game someday on my iPhone/iPad. Either that or Nintendo releases a portable console with a display you expect on a mobile device in the year 2015.

Yes.

I got a 2DS for Christmas just so I'd have a cheap way to play some classic remakes, but even for a $120 product, it's sub par in 2015. It's slow to navigate, doesn't have stellar battery life, and a low red screen.

 

[roadbloc]

I get the feeling that these games will be games that are Nintendo themed rather than actual Nintendo titles.

 

[HarryWarden]

Nintendo's games historically have been way too kiddy for my liking. Nowadays the popular console type games (i.e. not the throwaway Angry Birds/Candy Crush crap) are almost always more adult in content. Grand Theft Auto and the Call of Duty games are among the best-selling games of all time. Coincidentally, only Mario games beat them out of recent releases. Nintendo needs to do a Mario or Pokemon game to really hit this out of the park. A HD remake of the Pokemon Gameboy games would be very successful.

 

[TruthWatcher412]

Mario Kart with multiplayer please

 

[jrswizzle]

Nintendo should've done this years ago and led the mobile gaming revolution.

Luckily for them, no one else has really changed anything so the opportunity still exists.

Modern smartphones are immensely more powerful than many of the handheld gaming devices out there. A big time name like Nintendo jumping in also drives mote controller support.

To those saying Nintendo would fail by selling mobile games at the expense of handheld and consoles, I think you're looking at it far too linearly and simply. There is a price point out there at which the sheer volume of smartphones users (potential customers) would trump whatever they could make continuing to develop and manufacture (and the sell) handhelds.

I'd gladly pay $10-$20 for classic characters/games on my iPhone and iPad. Nintendo does it right, it'll change everything re mobile gaming.

 

[thelookingglass]

For nostalgic reasons, I want to see them succeed so badly. But, they've taken so many missteps lately. Hopefully focusing on mobile will bring them back.

 

[OutSpoken]

My predictions on this is that i think Nintendo will probably shock most people on here when they release their first games for smartphones and price it at 1$ or even free.

People seem to forget that we have a new generation of smartphone and tablet gamers that are so use to free-to-play to the point that it will be hard for even Nintendo to come out and try to force a new business model of charging way more than the average price for games.

Free-to-play at the moment appears to be very lucrative to other big name game houses like king, EA and Rovio that Nintendo die hards willing to empty their wallets for pokemon and Zelda ports just wont be sustainable enough imo

I think the saying goes if you can't beat'em join'em. And its pretty clear that Nintendo so far hasn't been able to beat'em even with 3ds sales doing okay hence why they've teamed up with DeNA which might i add; current offerings on the appstore is free-to-play games!

 

[0098386]

Nintendo's games historically have been way too kiddy for my liking. Nowadays the popular console type games (i.e. not the throwaway Angry Birds/Candy Crush crap) are almost always more adult in content. Grand Theft Auto and the Call of Duty games are among the best-selling games of all time. Coincidentally, only Mario games beat them out of recent releases. Nintendo needs to do a Mario or Pokemon game to really hit this out of the park. A HD remake of the Pokemon Gameboy games would be very successful.

Actually, Nintendo made the top 15 best-selling games ever. http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/. Call of Duty (etc) sell well, and will continue for a long time.

There was a Pokemon Gen 1 remake and Gen 2 remake. You want them to re-release them for a 3rd time? Nintendo have said they're not going to port games.

I know a lot of people here really like their telephones (I like my iPhone 6 as much as the next person) but it sounds like so many people here would be happy just buying a 3DS.

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For nostalgic reasons, I want to see them succeed so badly. But, they've taken so many missteps lately. Hopefully focusing on mobile will bring them back.

They did have some missteps, but now they're back in profit and successful thanks to strong 3DS sales, game sales and the Amiibo line of toys. So strange thinking a line of plastic toys can pull in $3b in just 2 months (I think, might have been 1).

 

[gkarris]

I've been thinking about this for a while, so the announcement is a welcomed one from me. However, unlike most people in this thread and across the internet it seems, I'd much prefer Nintendo to break away from the "surefire" way of handing new games by releasing remakes of old games and continued series of games like Mario and Zelda. Make new games for this new platform you're producing games for. I want to see unique ideas like Splatoon that is being release for the Wii U.

We need refreshing new titles in the Nintendo world.

It'll be like the how Apple iPod and iPhone led people to purchase Macs.

Nintendo mobile games will lead people to buy Nintendo Handhelds and Consoles...

 

[MasterRyu2011]

Once Apple has released their Watch Face API, I hope Nintendo makes a Mario face face. Gotta have Mickey and Mario.

 

[Simongrove2]

I would love to see the old Nintendo Gameboy Pokemon blue/red games produced.

 

[Grumpy-bear]

Mario please!

Nintendo should've done this years ago and led the mobile gaming revolution.

Luckily for them, no one else has really changed anything so the opportunity still exists.

Modern smartphones are immensely more powerful than many of the handheld gaming devices out there. A big time name like Nintendo jumping in also drives mote controller support.

To those saying Nintendo would fail by selling mobile games at the expense of handheld and consoles, I think you're looking at it far too linearly and simply. There is a price point out there at which the sheer volume of smartphones users (potential customers) would trump whatever they could make continuing to develop and manufacture (and the sell) handhelds.

I'd gladly pay $10-$20 for classic characters/games on my iPhone and iPad. Nintendo does it right, it'll change everything re mobile gaming.

I totally agree, there is a market and demand for their classics for old fans as well as non-serious gamers. I only play games on my iPhone when waiting to collect kids or if I get the odd ten minutes here and there. I don't think I'd ever walk around with a 3DS in my bag (too old for that), so having mario or something classic on my phone would be ideal. It need not even be as extravagant as full on graphics from WII U era, I'd be happy with the game boy level of graphics just to be able to play mario (perhaps that's just me though )

I even downloaded some poor imitation of mario bros, called leaps world or something. Occasionally come across it on my phone and play it for a few minutes before getting frustrated and giving up


Either way, I think there is the demand and opportunities for Nintendo within the mobile gaming market, they just need to find the right balance ... And move faster with releasing something.

 

[GeekishlyGreek]

A lot of people are missing the fact that Nintendo will not be porting older games. Those will remian exclusive to Nintendo hardware. They will only developing new, mobile oriented games using Nintendo IP. Which is good!



Uh, they were/are all available for download on the Wii/WiiU and were ported to various iterations of the DS....

Indeed! Alot of the old Nintendo favorites like this are available on the Wii-U/3DS Virtual Console, which brings me to another relevant point pertaining to this thread...

When Nintendo make games for any console, one thing that they did really well with Virtual Console is the use of being able to take a snapshot of a specific point in your game. (in other words, instead of just saving to the start of an area, you can literally pick up exactly where you left off in your game). All of the games that are on this Virtual Console already do this, but I personally feel that ALL Nintendo games should do this! Makes playing games so much nicer.

Another point to add is that while I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they do when they develop games on mobile devices like iPhone etc, I still think that the dual screen experience that you get on either the 3DS models or the Wii-U GamePad is a far superior way to play games (think- being able to see the map at the bottom screen whilst you are playing, making games much easier to navigate, or change weapons/items/etc mid-play.) So no matter how the Smartphone versions get implemented, the fact that such devices only have one screen will inevitably always mean that the console experience is going to be my preferred method of choice. That said though, the old retro classic games that were only ever built for one screen would definitely make alot more sense for this type of device, and I would definitely still play them.