Nintendo chief affirms mobile apps are on the way

Posted: 30 Jan 2014, 01:42, by Daniel P.

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Nintendo chief affirms mobile apps are on the way

Appearing at an investor briefing yesterday, CEO and president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata, confirmed that the company is considering the release of an official mobile application for the company's services.

It is not going to be mobile versions of Nintendo's popular games, it seems, but rather something similar to Sony's PlayStation or Valve's Steam apps, that serve as a gateway to their respective gaming universes from your mobile device. Mr Iwata's reasoning for that is that "When you adapt too much, you lose what's unique about you," he mentioned, though saying that Nintendo doesn't specifically restrict its developers from creating mobile games with its popular characters.

Thus Nintendo's consoles are not going away any time soon, and the Wii U's Nintendo Network ID (NNID) log-in, will get valid for smartphones and tablets, too. A new direction for Nintendo will also be "non-wearable" health monitoring and "quality of life (QOL)" devices that the company plans to do in an entertaining and sticky manner, which, knowing what it did with the Wii controller, is perfectly plausible.

source: Nintendo

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posted on 30 Jan 2014, 03:06

1. wolfsaviorzx (unregistered)

Thank God Nintendo has commonsense left. Putting Real games on iToys and Android Candy Phones without real controls would ruin their franchises forever. Instead people will get access to their eshop and social site. Maybe an occasional half assed mini game (like the Rayman Jungle Run game that Ubisoft made).

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 16:54

8. Reluctant_Human (Posts: 901; Member since: 28 Jun 2012)

I agree with you that releasing current gen games will kind their brand and interfere with their console/handheld sales. However, remaking older games for the phones would bring in ALOT of revenue. That's essentially been the business model for Square Enix for handsets and tablets and they're making a killing.

They could easily release great gameboy advance classics and I would buy them. For example final fantasy tactics advance, advance wars, etc.. It could even have the opposite effect and drive people to buy the newer handhelds or consoles.

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 03:28 1

2. Finalflash (Posts: 3448; Member since: 23 Jul 2013)

What they should do is adopt Android instead of their proprietary OS on their console. That way they literally double their content library with a built-in ouya in every console. They could also make their own game App store and have seamless compatibility with 1 billion devices out there. They also solve the lack of content app problem they have like net flix or hulu, which people seem to be complaining about.

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 04:09 1

3. wolfsaviorzx (unregistered)

Maybe you don't understand why Dedicated Consoles are successful, it's because people can depend when they buy the device it will last at least half a decade. This is due to the console all running the exact same hardware, and allowing developers to optimize. Android etc. can and needs to be run on all types of different hardware. Developers would never have the time to optimize, and the Nintendo Android console would be "Just another android device". This is why Microsoft opt. for a customized OS using Direct X for their Xbox Products rather than just a Vanilla port of Windows with a TV UI.

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 05:29 1

4. mr.techdude (Posts: 571; Member since: 19 Nov 2012)

Very true, I'm currently studying at uni game developing, and my god the stuff I heard from successful game developers for android/ios games is that they can't optimise for every device out there, they mainly choose the top selling devices with cutting edge hardware or simple hardware. They know that galaxy, HTC one series, nexus series, and iPhone and iPad series is where there success comes from

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 06:18 1

5. Finalflash (Posts: 3448; Member since: 23 Jul 2013)

Yea but you're missing the point. Nintendo isn't going to bring their games to other devices, they would simply have Android running on their own console. That way they only have to optimize for their own device and all the apps that work on android would work on their console to some degree. When it comes to netflix or hulu, they are just video players which would be no different than streaming via chromecast. No need to optimize those, and games will also run on that hardware just fine for the most part from other developers with a dedicated controller and way more powerful hardware than the game was designed for.

The compatibility I mentioned is for social networking and sharing pictures or videos of in game stuff. All of that stuff MS and Sony guys say the console lacks will be added for free and then some. Also, the Nintendo version of droid can be drastically different than the phone and tablet versions because its flexible like that.

They don't have to produce an Android device but a console with Android as an OS. So that proprietary limited OS of squares they have is no longer there and replaced by something developers are a lot more familiar with now. Not to mention it is a lot more dynamic than the current OS on the Wii U with a lot more content and flexibility.

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 07:03

6. mr.techdude (Posts: 571; Member since: 19 Nov 2012)

So your saying that it's better if Nintendo implemented android os on their console, sounds like an idea worth trying. My explanation was not directly at Nintendo although I understand where your getting at, however I was just speaking on behalf of those who make games find it time consuming to optimize their games on different devices. I really hope Nintendo puts Mario kart on android.

posted on 30 Jan 2014, 08:25

7. xtremesv (Posts: 298; Member since: 21 Oct 2011)

So because of Wii U failure Nintendo is going to convert it into a medical tricorder, clever uh.