Nintendo Investor Briefing: smart devices, 5 games planned by the end of March 2017
During today’s meeting with investors, Satoru Iwata talked about smart devices, and Nintendo’s plans for them. In the past decade, the internet and smart devices have had a huge impact on the game business and society as a whole. Therefore, Nintendo needs to adapt its strategy in order to take into account the changes brought by those new technologies, according to Satoru Iwata.
Satoru Iwata reiterated Nintendo’s intention of taking advantage of mobile platforms, in order to promote its IPs and maximise their value (by going beyond the traditional focus on dedicated game systems). After all, smart devices have become, for many people, the dominant window through which communication with other people and society as a whole is taking place.
It’s for this reason that, on March 17th, Nintendo announces an alliance with DeNA. This will result in two things:
– games using Nintendo IPs to be released on smartphones;
– a multi-device membership service, developed by DeNA.
The first mobile game will be released before the end of the (calendar) year.
And In order to properly operate the smart devices business, Nintendo has executed several organizational and personnel changes. One of them is Hideki Konno, producer of the Mario Kart series, who has been put in charge of the development of one or more of the mobile games using Nintendo IPs. According to Satoru Iwata, quoted by Sankei, this shows just how serious the company is about its mobile endeavours (which aren’t simply bones thrown to investors, in order to please them).
Satoru Iwata also reiterated that all Nintendo IPs can be considered for mobile games. But there’s a catch: the mobile game market is already extremely competitive, and even popular franchise aren’t always successful. It’s for this reason that the mobile games won’t be mere ports of already existing titles, as the playstyle wouldn’t match the one on smart devices. What’s more, business models are also quite different, so another approach is required.
For Satoru Iwata, it’s pointless for Nintendo to try launching mobile games if it doesn’t lead to the achievement of significant results. It’s for this reason that Nintendo will carefully select appropriate IPs and titles for its mobile endeavours.
In fact, Nintendo is only planning to lauch 5 titles on smart devices by the end of March 2017. Satoru Iwata explained that Nintendo wants to make every single one of them a major hit, that will be thoroughly operated for a long period of time after their release. Therefore, the “small” number of mobile games planned isn’t really that small, and is actually a proof of Nintendo’s commitment to the smart device market.
Finally, Nintendo is planning to expand this business on a global scale (not just in Japan), with the ultimate goal of entertaining hundred of millions of people all around the world (which is quite certainly a lofty one!). For Satoru Iwata, games on mobile devices will become one of the pillars of Nintendo’s revenue structure.
Source: Nintendo
Via: Siliconera
