Nintendo’s President Expecting a Strong Holiday and Says What He Really Thinks of Zynga
December 22, 2011
http://allthingsd.com/20111222/nintendos-president-expecting-a-strong-holiday-and-says-what-he-really-thinks-of-zynga/

I’ve spent the past week covering Zynga’s IPO. What’s your perspective on social gaming?

What’s the share price? It will be interesting when it breaks below $9 … I have a couple of thoughts on social gaming.

Consumers want to be entertained in a variety of ways, like watching TV or reading a book. The thing about entertainment — as consumers have a range of experiences — their desires for what’s new continues to be pushed out. So delivering the same experience all the time … consumers will move on.

So when I look at gaming experiences on social networks, there’s a variety of entertainment value. Some are strong, some are not. But in the end, how will they evolve? Doing the same thing over and over again is no longer fine.

Is that really fair when you have Mario Kart 7 coming out?

We continue to evolve the experience by providing a level of customization that’s new, or different ways to race with a sail and a propeller that allows you to drift under water. What we’ve done with Mario Kart 7, for some of the tracks, you can actually win when you go off the track, which never existed before. We’ve continued to make it more fun and add more enjoyment for the consumer.

You don’t see that innovation happening in social gaming?

The companies that will win in the social gaming space need to show an ability to provide the new and different experiences, and a way to monetize it. In the end, these are businesses that need to make money.

Is that your comment on the free-to-play model? Will you experiment with free-to-play?

I have two comments on that.

First, we make games for Nintendo devices, and that is a competitive advantage for us. You can only play Mario on a Nintendo device, so from that standpoint, I wouldn’t expect to see our franchises on other platforms, and I would argue Facebook is a platform.

My second point, on whether we will experiment with other forms of monetization?

Certainly.

How that comes about, or which ones we do first, that’s all experimentation that’s going on right now in our various studios.

alternate take:Nintendo president talks video apps and social gaming
http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/81707/nintendo-president-talks-video-apps-and-social-gaming/

comments from GoNintendo members:
http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=168920

Actually I somewhat agree with him on social gaming. I feel that right now it is pretty dull avenue and most games using very similar formulas.

Basically, we'll see a farmville type of free download game on WiiU and 3DS at some point.

Free to Pay games often end up costing more.

Either that or they simply aren't as fun.  The whole point of the free-to-play business model is to make it "sort of fun, but not really" so as to make you want to pay.  Except in rare cases (Clan Lord comes to mind) it is all mindlessly engineered to extract the maximum revenue from the customer base.

One really surprising fact I read about freemium iPhone games is that most of the revenue comes from the small percentage of people making $99 bulk purchases, rather than the much larger number of $1 impulse buys.  So from the game company's perspective, it's all part of the business plan to goad people into paying significantly more than they would for a AAA game (anyone willing to shell out $99 on shovelware like We Rule will probably do it again in a few months).

i think games should cost something. sure free is good but they ruin the market for those who try to make a living out of it as indie developers...

There are things that should be free. Such as porn.

Yeah I agree with you on the internet stuff but I was more referring to iOS, Android devises.

I think the games should at least cost a 1$ as a rule. That way the consumer then chooses what game is worth it and what to skip.

Why are you against free stuff? What's wrong with you?

free porn is good i agree!

i am an indie game developer :P