Motley Fool/Jefferies analyst call Nintendo a "Buy" because soon they will go iOS

[Osc89]

Gnac said:

Osc89 said:

Gnac said:
HOW will this benefit Nintendo?

What? I just explained that but I'll say it again more clearly with the example of Zelda.

1. 600 million people have the option to buy and play old Zelda games on their iOS device (Nintendo make money from the sales)

2. X of these people loved them, and are attracted to the new Zelda games only on 3DS and Wii U (Nintendo sell more consoles and make more money)

3. Nintendo loses the people who bought the Wii U for the Virtual Console (Nintendo loses pretty much no money)

 

How does this not benefit Nintendo?

This would dilute their overall product by removing the hardware / software synergy that they have always extolled, put their content delivery systems out of their control, and draw resources away from their core business, as Rol mentioned earlier. Nintendo already make money from sales. They already have the potential to attract people to new games, and although they may not be going about it in the right way (this is what marketing is for), whoring themselves out to fickle platforms like smartphones and tablets would risk devaluing their own platforms. How do you make the corellation between a user of a mobile game anticipating a further installment on a different dedicated gaming system? There's no guarantee that they will, but if the "trigger" is already on that system, there is more control, and thus more benefit for the content provider.

Given the popularity of emulators, I'm not sure this synergy is important. It's not like the Virtual Console games are sticking to the same hardware anyway. They would have all control over their content as they can pull the games whenever they want, it's not like they lose their rights to anything. As for resources, the emulators exist already.

They aren't making money off these old games really anyway, but given the millions of downloads of their ROMs there is clearly a market there. Sticking to what they "already do" is losing them money right now. While they will almost certainly turn things around sticking to the same old strategy, why not branch out and look at new opportunities? I don't think it should be judged so harshly as a strategy. The Wii U isn't "devalued" as the value is not in exclusivity to old games, it's in the new games otherwise why pick a Wii U over the previous consoles? Also they aren't whoring themselves out by letting people use Miiverse on other platforms are they?

As for the corellation between a user of these games anticipating a further installment on a different system, this is exactly how console makers get people to switch generations. You love Zelda on the Wii? You are interested in getting a Wii U when Zelda comes out. You love Zelda on iOS? The newest ones are always exclusive to the current Nintendo consoles, so you are interested in them. How is it different? As soon as your last console is dead, why not turn every iOS device into your last console?