It’s happening. That’s right, Nintendo has finally acknowledged the power of phones and tablets, revealing plans to start a new smart device based service.
The possibility of making games or using Nintendo characters we all know and love wasn’t ruled out, but president Mr Iwata did warn everyone not report the news as ‘Mario on smart devices’. Okay, just because we like him, we don’t that, but it could happen!
Here is a little snippet of what Mr Iwata said in statement to shareholders (click here for the complete text):
“Given that the competition for consumers’ time and attention has become fierce, I feel that how we will take advantage of smart devices is an extremely important question to answer. However, in order to be absolutely clear, let me emphasize that this does not mean simply supplying Nintendo games on smart devices. Taking advantage of smart devices means connecting with all consumers, including those who do not own Nintendo’s video game systems, through smart devices and communicating the value of our entertainment offerings, thus encouraging more people to participate in Nintendo platforms. I will elaborate on this point later.
We will use a small, select team of developers to achieve it. Also, we recognize that attracting consumers’ attention among the myriads of mobile applications is not easy, and as I said before, we feel that simply releasing our games just as they are on smart devices would not provide the best entertainment for smart devices, so we are not going to take any approach of this nature. Having said that, however, in the current environment surrounding smart devices, we feel that we will not be able to gain the support of many consumers unless we are able to provide something truly valuable that is unique to Nintendo. Accordingly, I have not given any restrictions to the development team, even not ruling out the possibility of making games or using our game characters. However, if you report that we will release Mario on smart devices, it would be a completely misleading statement. It is our intention to release some application on smart devices this year that is capable of attracting consumer attention and communicating the value of our entertainment offerings, so I would encourage you to see how our approach yields results.”
Interesting that Nintendo has finally given in to the power of smart devices, even though it doesn’t completely mean that we’ll see Mario and co on our iPhone or Android devices. At the very least, it means the company can expand its reach, something which they desperately need to do right now. If anything, we’re intrigued to see what this service turns out to be and how it evolves.
What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments!
