Yesterday, a report from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper asserted that Nintendo would be putting trailers, promotional info and mini-games about upcoming releases on smartphones. Now, a statement from Nintendo says that they won’t exactly be doing that.
Engadget has a full statement from the House of Mario that shoots down the rumour that made the rounds yesterday:
“Nikkei’s article contains information previously stated by Mr Iwata during past press conferences, including statements which relate to Nintendo’s willingness to make use of smart devices to promote our products.
However during such past announcements Mr Iwata has also stated that Nintendo’s intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer minigames on smartphone devices. “
The alleged move seemed like the company was bending towards a more robust engagement with the same portable hardware that observers say is a threat to Nintendo’s bottom line. Of course, Nintendo has denied rumours before, only to have them be borne out by actual news, as in the case of the 3DS XL. We’ll need to wait and see if and how Nintendo ever puts its content on devices outside its ecosystem.
[via Engadget]
Comments
7 responses to “Nintendo Denies Smartphone Game Rumours”
Isn’t it usually Nintendo’s MO to just say “No Comment” to rumours and speculation, the fact they have actually opened up to say a flat out “No” is actually kind of suspicious
It’s because the source was Nikkei.
I think Nintendo also denied that they were making a 3D handheld a week before they announced the 3DS.
Good. The last thing anyone wants is Nintendo to destroy their key titles smart device or go third party.
Yes Nintendo are doing it tough. Yes the Wii U is in a bad place currently, but Nintendo is in a financially better position then Sony. The Wii U low sales are not all Nintendo’s fault alone. There has been nothing but bad wrap for the U, even before it was released. Bad press or yellow journalism with titles like “Nintendo has admitted the Wii U is a flop” to which is has not, just makes people think poorly of the brand.
While Nintendo can only fix the issues, this crap that keeps getting tossed around. As well as this doom and gloom only make the market harder.
You’re on crack if you don’t think the WiiU is both flopping and Nintendo’s fault entirely.
Putting it out there now, there’s EVERY chance that the WiiU will sell less consoles than the Dreamcast did in its lifecycle.
Based even on pre-next-gen sales (before the Xbone and PS4) it wasn’t going to pass the DC for sales until sometime well into the 2020’s at that rate of sales. Since then they’ve CUT sales predictions for this year.
You have to release a product that the public wants at a time when they want it and Nintendo could not have gotten it more wrong.
My understanding is that the 3DS is still turning a solid profit though, but it is a bit of a worry if sales are still lower than hoped for after the barrage of brilliant exclusives that system got last year.
Personally I’d love to see Nintendo go 3rd party for consoles but stick to their guns in the handheld market (for now at least). The 3DS is a much better platform for gaming than a smartphone so for now I think it stays marketable for gaming types. I see very little benefit in Nintendo releasing underpowered (but still quite expensive) consoles and expecting people to buy them for 1-2 brilliant titles every year.
I love Nintendo but they haven’t given me a reason to buy a WiiU yet and with their big 2014 games being multiplayer titles (Kart and Smash Bros) which would require me to invest in not just the console but at least 3 extra controllers it’s not an investment I’ll be making anytime soon, if ever.
Also I got the idea that the Nintendo Smartphone games would be small, advertising type things. Kind of like Disney puts out mini-games to promote their upcoming films. I don’t think the intention was ever to release Zelda: iPhone edition or anything like that.
So for EA to abandon a console just because Nintendo didn’t want Origin running their online 4 months in is Nintendo’s fault? For Crytet to cancel Crisis when it was ready for launch? Ubisoft with Rayman?
Admit Nintendo are hard to deal with, but at E3 2012 EA promised to be a solid partner, and the other day the COO who is second in charge wanting to develop games, and saying Nintendo is a good partner is again all on Nintendo? Nintendo need to advertise the console, they have done nothing, not one TV ad or anything. Yes a lot is their fault, but this crap getting tossed around is just picking on the big guy attitude. Yes it may flop, but will this be their last home console, no way. Look up Sony’s last 10 year trading reports not one profit world wide.
If you run constant stories that something is bad for a long period of time, eventually everyone starts believing it. When in fact it is a good fun console with very good exclusive games. You yourself admit you don’t even own a Wii U, so how can you even judge something you don’t have. Or are you channelling Patcher?
At the end of the day all those things ARE Nintendo’s fault.
Why do they manage their relationships so badly? Why are their online systems so archaic? Why don’t they go out of their way to stop Ubisoft from walking away from their console after they’ve already finished development? Why can’t they get their back-catalogue up onto their online store in a timely and financially viable manner?
These things really are their fault. It’s not a media beat up or anyone picking on the little guy or beating up the big guy.
Gamers LOVE Nintendo. I love Nintendo. They make the absolute best games on the planet but these days so much of what goes into a console isn’t about games and outside of the Wiimote being a mainstream hit (for a while) Nintendo haven’t done anything good in the console environment (not talking games) since the N64.
20 years ago there was 2 major players in the console race at any time. Sega and Nintendo and then Sony and Nintendo. LOTS of games were platform exclusive and all the hardware and operating system needed to do was run whatever was in the slot/ tray when the power was turned on.
Nintendo do that well, their games are great and they make sturdy controllers and (at that time) solid hardware.
Now consoles have to do a whole bunch of things, online systems are the absolute core of the OS and the other two major players in the market have gotten close enough to PC style hardware and infrastructure that the three systems share just about all games as multiplatform titles.
Between the terrible online systems and the “different” hardware Nintendo have alienated themselves from just about every 3rd party developer on the planet. People who want to play Nintendo games are expected to buy the hardware just for a handful of titles and it’s just not worth it for most people (have a look at the sales figures).
The world isn’t going to go back to 1996 so that Nintendo can get back on top doing what they do best (games). They’ve already conceded that they can’t (or won’t even try) to compete on a hardware level, they are WAY behind on online integration and they’re so out of touch they can’t even make their back-catalogue available.
Time to go back to what they do best and just make great console games.
Handhelds are where they are making their money right now , why would they kill it off to sell their games for $5 on a smart phone?