There are also other interesting ideas on how Nintendo can help pull mobile users to consoles.
For example, Mario Maker.

Content creation would be a compelling way to convince people to buy a console.
Experimenting on a HC or HH what you can create on a mobile device can give you that fulfilling feeling. And who doesn't like that? Who doesn't like creating good things?

People who grew up with Mario would probably be willing to take another chance on consoles if they could re-create what they loved to play as kids.

Or, what if you could create and develop characters for little adventures on mobile and have full blown adventures on a HH and HC?
"Start small" on mobile and then offer something bigger or even diferente types of adventure on HH and HC!
Adventures that offer co-op too.

Those 3DS streetpass games come to mind.


Overall, i think the best way to attract gamers might just be if they create games that "start small" on mobile and then go big on consoles or just create games that are a mix of gameplay mechanics but do complement each other.

Creating a sinergy between all devices might be the best way to attract mobile users to consoles.

I'm not saying that Plus and Live are terrible. I'm saying that the way they connect people to their phones and to their relative devices have been done terribly. No one cares about the PS app. No one is buying a PS4 because their PS app lead them there. No one's buying a Vita because they have PS Plus on their PS3/4's. Within those perameters, those two systems have failed.

If Sony release an Uncharted game on the app store, with the explicite purpose of funneling people to buy PS4, that game would fail. Uncharted, as a brand, isn't relavant enough. Maybe to gamers it is, but not to the mainstream. Mario can do that. Pikachu can do that. Hell, I bet even Mii's can do that now.

What I'm talking about skips all the catching up Nintendo clearly has to do. None of that is relevant to this topic. Nintendo "not having achievements" has literally nothing to do with this. Nintendo being behind isn't new. I'm not even saying that making a Nintendo app is new. But the coaxing people into a network through what introduces itself as a simple mobile fad, is new. At least for the big three. It's not something Sony has done successfully, and it's not something that Microsoft has done successfully. Until this DeNA partnership, it wasn't something I thought Nintendo could do successfully. But DeNA is what makes the difference.

Whatever you say about Gree, it's a platform made with the sole purpose of uniformly connecting players through their games. That's what DeNA is known for. That's their strongest asset. Nintendo doesn't want DeNA's mobile game expertise as much as they want their Mobage expertise. There's no denying that. Whatever the format, the NN app will be the main hub. My point isn't that Nintendo is trying to circumvent Apple's 30% cut. My point is that Nintendo wants to maintain control of the identity of these games. These aren't "games on the app store;" these are Nintendo games. With this app, the games maintain that identity, even on a foreign marketplace like the app store or Google play. This is not a move like when Sega made Sonic Rush. In the eyes of the consumer, that's "just a Sonic game on the app store." I have GTA San Andreas on my phone, and I feel absolutely no connection to Rockstar through it. Nintendo doesn't want that. That's why this platform matters.

Perhaps buying Nintendo games will be more like downloading the Facebook Chat app. Whatever form it takes, there will be a very real, tangable, immediate, and relevant connection between your game and your account. When most people downloaded the Facebook IM app, it was done through the Facebook app. It doesn't matter if you were technically brought to the app store. The connection has been made already, and you will be hardily challenged to find someone with the latter app that doesn't also have the former. And you also wouldn't be hard pressed to find people who regularly launch their IM app directly from their main Facebook app. 

Gree proves that, in some shape, this app can exist merrily on iOS. Mobage can exist on the app store. A Nintendo marketplace, whether you want to call it that or not, can exist on the app store. There are no issues with Apple. Like Nintendo said, the primary focus is not to make money, it's to build an install base.

Nintendo has literally said the opposite though. Nintendo on mobile is not "simply a way to make extra money." They've literally said that. They want to use mobile as a bridge to their other business. This is not a move for "a few more kids" to buy gaming hardware. It is the cake itself. It's Nintendo's end goal. Nintendo wants to become relevant again. Mainstream relevant. Wii relevent.

And again, I'm not predicting that this Nintendo platform will be as important as their Facebook or Twitter. I'm saying that that's what Nintendo's goal is. But I do believe that Nintendo, as a brand, is in a better position than any other company in the industry to pull something like this off. With 100 million Wiis and 150 million DS's sold last generation, it's not like Nintendo isn't used to that kind of mainstream relevance. Nintendo wants a way to maintain that. Nintendo wants to bottle that flame. They know all to well how to make the hits. Wii Sports is arguably the best selling game of all time, bundle or not. What Nintendo needs is a platform to maintain that. DeNA can give that to them.

It's not talked about because it doesn't seem to matter, but there's no gaming equivilant to Facebook. A buisiness friend once said to me that the big reason why websites like Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin became so successful is because they isolated things that people routinely did on Facebook - update statuses, upload picture, keep in touch with peers - and focused them into a seperate marketable product. Gaming doesn't have that yet. A steam-like, facebook-like, account based program to connect with your peers. Not on a mainstream level, at least. Not to the success of Facebook. And some might even argue that gaming doesn't need it. But I think that Nintendo sees that as the next blue ocean.

This, is not something that Sony has done. They haven't bridged that mainstream gap. They haven't even tried. That's why I used WwF as my example as the debut game for this. It's the perfect type of game to get players to connect with their NNIDs in the sameway that they interact with their Facebooks and Twitters. Facebook is passive. You don't have to be on the app 24/7 to get something out of it. But just like you check a Facebook notification to reveal a new interaction you've made with a peer, WwF does literally the exact same thing, but in game format. Nintendo wants that, and they've said as much. The want to make games that you're checking daily. Games they you're playing regularly. They want to make gaming part of your daily routine and they want you to identify that routine specifically with Nintendo.

And I agree that Miiverse failed at that, but it was a clear attempt. It was Nintendo trying. That is clear and tangable evidence that it's something that, to some extent, Nintendo has an intrest in. But Nintendo simply does not have the know-how to build a platform like that. You know that, I know that, and no one is arguing against that. That's clear. DeNA does have that know-how though, with the added benefit of allowing Nintendo to remain in the driver's seat.

Nintendo online and smart decisions don't always mix. I really doubt they'll take advantage of the tools available to them effectively. They don't even allow party chat or universal accounts

Not a bad write up and yes I read it all.

I think you have a very good and plausible idea. I can see it happening. Though this fall, I'd only expect the new mobile and reward system to be revealed with tidbits in how it relates to current hardware. I don't expect anything real on NX until 2016. But maybe they'll foreshadow how it will relate to NX without any actual NX hardware/software discussions.

I think that that will be an interesting issue for Nintendo to tackle. This is relevant for the mainstream, non-gamer, audience, but how can Nintendo get gamers to care, and do they even need to? I think that this, will in many ways, be like the Wii. I think that is was refreshing for a lot of gamers to be able to connect with there non-gaming friends while the Wii was out. It became such a cultural phenomenon, that everyone had an experience with games like Wii Sports. As cheesy as it sounds, I think that will be enough. Teens being able to connect with their parents directly through this hobby they love.

But outside of that, I think that it's important remember that this is specifically a rewards program. Who were the only people who cared about Club Nintendo or the Digital Deluxe Program? The hardest of core Nintendo fans. That's not to say that this membership will appeal only to them, but it's clearly birthed from a concept mean to reward the most dedicated gaming consumers.

I think that you're going to see games that stay small on mobile. I think you'll see a lot more mobile games that lead to slightly deeper mobile games, as opposed to someone playing iPokemon Shuffle immediately jumping to dedicated gaming hardware. I think you'll see something like Pokemon Shuffle lead someone to something like Pokemon "Tower Defense," which has a little more strategy, requires just a little more commitement, and maybe even has a little linear plot to give the experience a little more meaning. Then from there, people can get more used to the idea of gaming being an important recreational practice, with the same relevance as TV or movies. With enough of these smaller, but more deep experiences, the hope will be that these consumers will be more open to the ideas of gaming on dedicated hardware in general, and gaming on Nintendo hardware in particular, now that they've created a library and a new attachment to the brand.

I think that the fact that Nintendo purchased a majority stake in a company fit to specifically tackle just that tells us that they already know that they don't get online. I don't that simply think saying "it's Nintendo and it's online, so of course they'll do things wrong and backwards" is conducive to a compelling argument anymore.

Oh, definitely. I definitely don't think that the launch of the program will be the reveal of the full scope of this platform, but I definitely think that it will be the first true and tangable realization of this platform. Since the Wii U and 3DS were not built with this platform explicitely in mind, there's no way they can fully integrate it, but I think that they will do as much as they can. That's why I think that, say, themes will be cross buy across an update via a firmware update when this program launches. Little things like that help unify the two consoles through this program. And again, that's only a guess. It's the idea of why they'd want to do that that's more important.

I think that the rewards system is the unified platform. It won't be separate. No more logging into a separate account for Club Nintendo and a separate-separate account for the DDP. Everything will be on one "platform," and this "rewards program" is it. It's their iOS, their Android, their Steam, their Live Gold, their Plus, their Facebook, their Twitter, and their Instagram.

And it will be orange. (which is obviously a guess lol)

I NEEEEEEEEEEED THIS TO HAPPEN IT'S TOO PERFECT.

You suffer the same issue of most Nintendo fans and it's something Nintendo itself suffers: the belief that their IPs are some magical things that can do anything. All of them aren't saving the Wii U. All of them won't avoid the fall of portables.

Making people create a NNID won't make them buy Wii U or 3DS. Just like people create a new account for WWF, they can do it for any console.

You are implying that an app with some games will create a magical connection between people and Nintendo. If games like GTA San Andreas didn't do it on mobile, nobody will. It's a companion device. Want people to buy your gaming device? You don't have to buy a mobile gaming company and make apps for that. Just create something people want and advertise it. That's what Sony did with the PS4. The mobile app is a companion an extra feature. The strenght of their aproach is at the core of the machine: the gaming aspect.

Creating an app with links to other game on the App Store isn't "creating a platform". You aren't understanding the concept of platform. Just creating an unified ID isn't creating a platform. This already exists, everywhere.

Their strategy is more straightforward: expand the handheld userbase to the mobile base. They will make money with mobile games, they won't attract games to their platform. Of course, some will make the jump, but that's a bonus. An unified login and cross-purchases is just the minimum requirement for this to work. That's possibility 1. Possibility 2 is that they will just make spinoff of their IPs on mobile to get some advertising, like Sony did. This of course, would fail in the same way. They can't go half way. Or they release a mobile full Pokemon or 2D Mario game or they will end with some random re-skin of a endless runner that won't change a thing.