Nintendo's Mobile Push to Focus on Marketing Demos, Not Full Games

[Carl Sagan]

I think I'm the only gamer in this thread.

Nintendo has about 10-15 billion dollars in cash right now. Saying they are about to fail over one possible failure of a console is hilarious.

Clearly you know nothing about business. A serious drop in profits, the lack of confidence in the market and watch the company value drop like a stone. Those billions will seem awfully small in that reality and will be needed to shore up their business. Watch how fast they die if they don't let their games on other platforms.

 

[Liquorpuki]

This idea is a bit rubbish. Demo's a pointless and as many stated, it won't make you rush out and buy a nintendo machine.

Personally I think it makes sense. Nintendo is trying to use iOS's huge install base as a gateway to their ecosystem.

It might work since Nintendo treats games as value propositions instead of disposable commodities.

 

[fahlman]

You realize that the 3ds sold better than any console last year right? It sold 13.5 million units. It now has an installed base of over 40 million.

Apple sold 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPad... this quarter. I'm not suggesting Nintendo stop making hardware, but their numbers pale in comparison.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Apple sold 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPad... this quarter. I'm not suggesting Nintendo stop making hardware, but their numbers pale in comparison.

That's because they're in different markets

 

[Old Muley]

After a couple of repairs, out Wii finally died. Since the kids had a number of Wii games they still enjoyed, we decided to spring for the WiiU. It is a bit of a step up from the original and I particularly like the fact that it finally connects via HDMI. It is what it is and is fine for the casual gaming I do.

 

[Mikeyswen79]

Is anyone here actually a gamer? There is something to be said about playing games on a console vs. a computer or an iOS device. There is no chance that you could develop amazing titles like Mario or Zelda for an iOS device without them being severely diminished versions of their console counterparts.

And by the way why are we not saying this to Sony and Microsoft? It is clear that there is a huge market for console gaming.

 

[macduke]

It's not that I don't want to play Mario—it's that I don't want to carry around yet another device to play Mario.

If anyone can push up the price of games on iOS it's Nintendo. Put Mario on there for $20-30 and you'll sell tens of millions of downloads. Or Starfox, or Zelda, or Mariocart, or...ALL OF THOSE!

Build in support for the controller API in all games and do this: Release a Nintendo for iOS Starter Bundle. It's a Nintendo quality, branded controller with rechargeable battery that comes bundled with a Lightning to HDMI cable for $99. Extra controllers are $59. The battery and charger kit is $29. The HDMI cable is $29. Brand everything strongly with Nintendo. Make them in multiple colors. Do what you do best, Nintendo. Make great games and controllers.

They could do the same thing with handhelds: $99 Nintendo iPhone controller battery case.

Lastly, import the Nintendo back-catalog of games for iOS. NES games for $2.99. SNES games for $4.99. N64 games for $7.99. Gamecube games for $9.99. Wii games for $14.99. I can think of at least a dozen NES, SNES and N64 games that I would pick up, along with few Gamecube and Wii games. That's a few hundred dollars that I would gladly spend to get old titles on my iPad and iPhone. I know a lot of people who would pay for this too.

I think it's inevitable that Nintendo will have to make games for smartphone platforms. But how long will they continue to let their pride get in their way? I hope that they don't go under before they realize it.

 

[iapplelove]

Guess he'd rather provide them to the bankruptcy court.

lol line of the day.

 

[dec.]

I think one of the mistakes that Nintendo has made, is overrating the "casual gamers" crowd. Yes, a few people that I know who never cared about a console before did buy a wii. But it's extremely hard to explain to them why they are supposed to buy "a new wii", since their existing one is doing perfectly fine. And the regular console crowd does pay a lot of attention to tech specs, so the timing of releasing a relatively weak console with everyone knowing that the next-gen is coming closer wasn't really great either.

Gaming on iOS / tablets / smartphones is something I don't really get into, depending on the game type. The touch screen controls take away a ton of the accuracy and flexibility, I just deleted Tomb Raider because it was extremely frustrating and basically unplayable for me. I can't see that being much different with a typical Mario game unless they cripple down the controls to the typical "mario runs automatically, hit jump at the right time".
For other game types like puzzles etc., the touch screen control is great.
And an external controller? Not very convenient...

 

[TouchMint.com]

I give it a year maybe 2 years before they have full back dated games on ios (nes snes gameboy)

 

[springsup]

This is pretty much what I expected (though I doubt they'll actually be playable demos of console games. That doesn't make sense.), and is the best idea. Asking Nintendo to make games for smartphones is like asking Apple to license out iOS and OS X.

I disagree.

Apple make most of their money on their hardware.

Nintendo make most of their money from software, with slim hardware margins which encourage more software purchases. They would lose licensing income from third-parties, but I get the feeling most of the high-volume software on their platform is first-party anyway.

There is definitely a market for high-end games on iOS, to counter the freemium junk. A big brand like Nintendo would be in the ideal position to exploit that. I would pay £15 or £20 for a relatively recent Pokemon game (without IAPs of course).

Another thing they could do is bring their 'virtual console' emulator to iOS, in a similar way to the officially licensed Commodore 64 app. Apple will allow emulators on the store if they are licensed and only load pre-approved binaries (such as from IAPs, not arbitrary ROMs off the internet). That would expose a new generation of gamers to their franchises and increase the value for Nintendo customers who buy games from their online store.

 

[Liquorpuki]

It's not that I don't want to play Mario—it's that I don't want to carry around yet another device to play Mario.

If anyone can push up the price of games on iOS it's Nintendo. Put Mario on there for $20-30 and you'll sell tens of millions of downloads. Or Starfox, or Zelda, or Mariocart, or...ALL OF THOSE!

If they could raise the price of games it would make a little more sense. But you look at every brand that's gone onto iOS and they've all had their value drive down. Madden, Sonic, Mortal Kombat, NBA 2K, Sims, etc

The reality is $20-30 on iOS = you've priced yourself out of the market.

The biggest winners on iOS are companies like Supercell and King, who bank on free games w/ gameplay bottlenecks designed to force IAP. They're the ones bringing in $500K to $1M a day.

 

[Gudi]

I think I'm the only gamer in this thread.

Yes, you are. And that describes Nintendos whole problem.
The rest of the world is already gaming on iPhones and iPads and will never come back.

Nintendo has about 10-15 billion dollars in cash right now. Saying they are about to fail over one possible failure of a console is hilarious.

Abenomics is devaluing the Yen right now. Hilarious!
Japans state debt is at 250 % and destroying Nintendos financial assets will pay them.

 

[Renzatic]

Yes, you are. And that describes Nintendos whole problem.
The rest of the world is already gaming on iPhones and iPads and will never come back.

Hardly. While we're all buying games on our iPhones and iPads, they don't quite offer the same experience. People who fall more in line with the traditional gamer mold are still playing on their Playstations, Xboxes, and to a lesser extent (as of this generation) WiiUs.

As much as you'd like to think otherwise, mobile platforms haven't killed the consoles.

 

[alent1234]

If they could raise the price of games it would make a little more sense. But you look at every brand that's gone onto iOS and they've all had their value drive down. Madden, Sonic, Mortal Kombat, NBA 2K, Sims, etc

The reality is $20-30 on iOS = you've priced yourself out of the market.

The biggest winners on iOS are companies like Supercell and King, who bank on free games w/ gameplay bottlenecks designed to force IAP. They're the ones bringing in $500K to $1M a day.

Once you figure in the iap and the extra levels $20-$30 is about the price of an iOS game
Check out Lego hobbit as an example

 

[alexgowers]

Nintendo just need to rethink their company strategy.

It seems like a eastern thing in large companies not adapt to fast changing markets, it used to be a western thing but they got burned too many times.

Nintendo has such a massive portfolio of great games but no one is using the hardware nintendo wants to try and sell.

It makes sense to release a metric tonne of that content onto mobile as nintendo don't make phones! I mean come on it can't be that bad for business when you don't even make a competing platform.

The 3ds etc aren't in the same area as they are dedicated machines that most adults and the majority of players dislike as they aren't connected to the net, are bulky, require disks for games and seem like tech from 10 years ago!

Seriously now this is real bad news for nintendo, i hope they get their act together and kill the CEO or board making these blunders. If that happened I would be first in like for some nintendo stock! Massive profits would ensue.

 

[cmChimera]

Clearly you know nothing about business. A serious drop in profits, the lack of confidence in the market and watch the company value drop like a stone. Those billions will seem awfully small in that reality and will be needed to shore up their business. Watch how fast they die if they don't let their games on other platforms.

Ok, will do. People have been saying Nintendo is doomed about as long as they've been saying Apple is doomed. It never seems to be very realistic.

Apple sold 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPad... this quarter. I'm not suggesting Nintendo stop making hardware, but their numbers pale in comparison.

What's your point? More people need a phone than a dedicated gaming handheld. It's not a relevant comparison to make.

I disagree.

Apple make most of their money on their hardware.

Nintendo make most of their money from software, with slim hardware margins which encourage more software purchases. They would lose licensing income from third-parties, but I get the feeling most of the high-volume software on their platform is first-party anyway.

There is definitely a market for high-end games on iOS, to counter the freemium junk. A big brand like Nintendo would be in the ideal position to exploit that. I would pay £15 or £20 for a relatively recent Pokemon game (without IAPs of course).

Another thing they could do is bring their 'virtual console' emulator to iOS, in a similar way to the officially licensed Commodore 64 app. Apple will allow emulators on the store if they are licensed and only load pre-approved binaries (such as from IAPs, not arbitrary ROMs off the internet). That would expose a new generation of gamers to their franchises and increase the value for Nintendo customers who buy games from their online store.

And how many macs and iPhones do you think Apple would sell if other competitors could use their OSs? Not nearly as many. Why? Because licensing out the software devalues not only the software, but the hardware as well.

Yes, you are. And that describes Nintendos whole problem.
The rest of the world is already gaming on iPhones and iPads and will never come back.

Not sure if serious.

 

[Doctor Q]

This idea is a bit rubbish. Demo's a pointless and as many stated, it won't make you rush out and buy a nintendo machine.

I can just see it. You'll see a preview of some new Mario game, then a message saying "Thank you, but our game is in another castle!"

 

[Gudi]

As much as you'd like to think otherwise, mobile platforms haven't killed the consoles.

The console business is fine. Nintendo isn't in it. I'm myself thinking about buying a PS4, now that I no longer own a Windows PC. Sony and Microsoft are basically selling very capable AMD-based Gaming PCs disguised as consoles. Only Nintendo is stuck on PowerPC CPUs and can't run nothing but first-party titles. Nintendo is in the Nintendo business. They don't have a thriving platform, because of their hardware disadvantage. It's a Nintendo problem, not anyone else's.

PS4 = 1.84 teraflops
XB1 = 1.1 teraflops
WU = 360 gigaflops

The XB1 is two WUs slower than the PS4. That's saying something.

 

[lewisd25]

Nintendo is a traditional Japanese company that hasn't westernized like Sony has. Nintendo is embarrassed by their failures, and giving up on the console market wouldn't allow them to save face.

That said, I would love to see Apple buy Nintendo one day so that I can open a new game system that says, "Designed by Apple in California. Developed by Nintendo in Kyoto."

 

[RighteousNixon]

This is very important

You have to be kidding right? This is like crumbling up a piece of paper and throwing it at a brick wall. The problems with the Wii U are not going to be fixed by advertising. This is a perfect example of why Nintendo desperately needs new management.

 

[Renzatic]

The console business is fine. Nintendo isn't in it. I'm myself thinking about buying a PS4, now that I no longer own a Windows PC. Sony and Microsoft are basically selling very capable AMD-based Gaming PCs disguised as consoles. Only Nintendo is stuck on PowerPC CPUs and can't run nothing but first-party titles. Nintendo is in the Nintendo business. They don't have a thriving platform, because of their hardware disadvantage. It's a Nintendo problem, not anyone else's.

PS4 = 1.84 teraflops
XB1 = 1.1 teraflops
WU = 360 gigaflops

The XB1 is two WUs slower than the PS4. That's saying something.

It didn't hurt them much last time when the Wii was a generation behind everything else. Thing is, they had something there to help move it off store shelves: motion control and a lot of nice games to go along with it. With the WiiU, they don't have that. There's absolutely no reason to grab one that I can see.

But the 3DS? It's doing fine.

And yeah, I'll probably get a PS4 once I get tired of my PS3.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Once you figure in the iap and the extra levels $20-$30 is about the price of an iOS game
Check out Lego hobbit as an example

You ever wonder why IAP is so rampant on mobile?

It's because race to the bottom pricing has made the games there so disposable the only way to get people to download your game now is to make it free. You make it free you gotta monetize some other way - ads, subs, IAP.

IAP is not something to write home about, it's a symptom of a market where software is grossly devalued. And developers that have gotten rich off iOS (Zynga, Rovio, Supercell, King etc) figured out a long time ago the best way to maximize profit was incorporate gameplay mechanics that use IAP to kill boredom.

AKA make it so you have to wait 12 hours to harvest virtual carrots and spam you with IAP ads.

 

[RighteousNixon]

Nintendo is a traditional Japanese company that hasn't westernized like Sony has. Nintendo is embarrassed by their failures, and giving up on the console market wouldn't allow them to save face.

That said, I would love to see Apple buy Nintendo one day so that I can open a new game system that says, "Designed by Apple in California. Developed by Nintendo in Kyoto."

Wow, I have never though about that before. Its a long shot, but its an incredibly interesting idea. Apple buying Nintendo. It would give Apple a big foot in the door in regards to the gaming market beyond iPads and cell phones, while significantly bolstering its gaming presence in the handheld markets. The chances of it happening are probably slim to none, but its still a very interesting premise.

 

[haruhiko]

So instead of buying a real console or handheld devices, now they expect their customers to pay for basically an ad for their consoles or handheld devices?