Investors pressure Nintendo to jump on iPhone bandwagon

By on Aug 11, 2011 at 9:10 PM
Gaming August 11, 2011

At least one investor is calling on Nintendo to begin developing titles for Apple’s iOS platform, a move away from the company’s standard practice of developing for its own portable gaming consoles. “Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry,” Stats Investment Management Co. fund manager Masamitsu Ohki said. “Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.” Despite Ohki’s push and recent rumors that Nintendo would create a Pokémon title for Android and iOS, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata has said his company will not develop games for mobile platforms. Nintendo’s latest portable gaming system, the 3DS, was met with lukewarm reviews when it launched in the United States and the company has attributed a lack of attractive games to its relatively poor sales performance. The Japanese gaming company recently dropped the price to $169.99, nearly $100 cheaper than its debut price point, to attract new consumers. It also announced a new 3DS “Ambassador Program” that will provide 20 free games to anyone who purchases a device and signs into the Nintendo eStore by the end of the day on August 11th.

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  • http://MobileGenius.wordpress.com JM

    Smart move. Get the games in front of as many eyes as possible.

    • http://twitter.com/IamGregSmith Greg Smith

      Pokemon alone on iOS will crash the app store and break records, easily.

    • Anonymous

      EXACTLY. Nintendo is suffocating themselves this way.

  • Anonymous

    Pokemon on iOS and Android would be the best selling title for either platform guaranteed!

  • Anonymous

    Lol GIVE ME MARIO! . . . although emulators do a very good job for me

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    Why aren’t investors pressuring for DROID OS adoption????????

    • Anonymous

      Remember norm, these video games are for intellectually inferior people, so iPhone users are the right demographic. If we were talking about Go, Blink Game, or Mastermind, for example, then Android’s the bomb baby!

    • Anonymous

      Games on iOS are pretty big. I’m not sure and have no numbers but I’m wondering if they have compared the number of gamers on Android devices to that on iOS. iOS may just have a larger gaming market.

    • Anonymous

      You mean Droid as in the line of Android powered phones on Verizon? Seems like a small market to go for in that case.

  • ooccoo

    Might be a smart move financially, but it would not be a Nintendo move and would never ever happen. Nintendo has stated many times that their games, their first party games, will never be made for non-Nintendo devices. Their games on their systems. And personally, I want it that way. I don’t want to play Mario on my cell phone/tablet. I want to play Mario on my Nintendo home or portable console of choice. Nintendo must stay true to their principles and let lemming investors be darned. And yes, I’m a fanboy. :)

    • Anonymous

      I’m fine with that as long as they stop the region locking. That has to be a significant % of people turned away/off by that.

    • Anonymous

      @ this point, i won’t respect them for staying true. the game has changed. we r in a world where all u need is one device with u..not a separate device just for games. i’m done with that time in the world. sooo..Nintendo should adapt or die.

  • Anonymous

    I would literally adopt any platform with a real Pokemon game and drop my current device ASAP.

  • Anonymous

    Zelda please.

    • Lechero

      Yes!!! Gimme Zelda 24/7

  • Corinne

    I really wish they would bring Mario and Donkey Kong to iOS because I will never buy a console or dedicated mobile gaming device to play those games and I think there are a lot of casual gamers like me that Nintendo is missing out on.

    • Anonymous

      preachin to the choir.

  • http://twitter.com/axlahn Sam Ahn

    This would be magical:  an iOS version of Mario with Steve Jobs taking over for Bowser…better yet..Punch Out with lil’ Mac causing some pain to Jobs…or even better Ballmer!!

  • Anonymous

    i personally emailed Game Freak 2 years ago asking them to create Pokemon on another mobile platform. I hate playing on the DS, and wouldn’t imagine liking the feel of the 3DS either..but i love holding my Nexus S for hours. Nintendo needs to get with it!!!!!

    • Bullet Tooth Tony

      I don’t know what’s worse… your over-inflated self-worth that makes you think that you personally emailing a company is going to make a difference, and that we all need to know what you personally did….. or the fact that you play pokemon.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe its just me but I hate playing most games on a touch screen. Its uncomfortable to touch some fake dpad and buttons.

    The only games I could really see being great and bringing back on a touch only device would be point and click adventures. They were designed to be mainly used with a mouse so a finger isn’t much different.

  • Anonymous

    “Investors pressure” “at least one investor”
    So one guy makes a call for this and bgr makes a sensationalist article title that makes you think many investors are calling for this. Whatever it takes for page views I guess.

  • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

    Why would a successful company jump to make applications for a dying platform like iOS?

  • Anonymous

    You listening MS?  Partner with Nintendo NOW!!!  This would boost sales astronomically!  Do it for us Wii60 fans!!

  • http://twitter.com/dana11235 Dana Levine

    It actually would be a poor move for Nintendo to release on iOS, both from a financial and a strategic position. 

    From a financial perspective, they would make less per title. On their consoles, they own the platform, and get a percentage of every game sold. With first-party titles, they make 100% of whatever they sell. On iOS, they only get a percentage of the games that they sell. Sure they might sell more copies, but economically, it might actually turn out worse.

    The key strategic issue is platform lock-in. By releasing on iOS, they actually encourage people to stop using Nintendo products. Right now, Nintendo fans keep buying Nintendo consoles for first-party titles. Once they have the console, they are locked in, and keep buying more Nintendo games. If customers can get Nintendo games on their iPad, they won’t have any platform lock-in. Their next game could be a non-Nintendo game, and they will have no incentive to buy Nintendo consoles. Customers will buy whatever Apple tells them to buy. I think that the strategic lock-in issues will keep Nintendo from releasing on iOS until they absolutely have to (financials are so poor that they need to do it to survive).

    It is a sad day when a gaming company goes from making their own consoles to shipping games on other peoples’ platforms. It happened to Sega, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens to Nintendo at some point in the future (especially as the niche they have targeted, casual gaming, moves more towards tablets and mobile phones).

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