By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 19 March 2015
Edit Thread
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

I think you're wrong and we'll see. 

I think one of the best ways to grow the brand is to have some 8/9-year-old kid who wouldn't have otherwise played Zelda at all this gen, get hooked on a Phantom Hourglass type Zelda F2P game on iOS. Start with 1-2 dungeons, then he/she can download others and voila, now they kinda know the rudimentary basics of the Zelda franchise (Link does a spin-attack, oh the dungeons are like puzzles you have to figure them out, neat, oh a lizard boss), etc.

And maybe just maybe some of those kids will then say "y'know Zelda is cool, oh awesome they have Zelda on NX and it's like super epic I'm checking this out". 

And again even for third parties, I'm Capcom is heavily invested in Monster Hunter selling well on the 3DS. The iOS version has done nothing to stop that. 

At the end of the day too hardware only exists to serve Nintendo, you seem to have the opposite view that Nintendo exists to serve hardware. Hardware is not supposed to prevent you from reaching your audience, the moment it starts doing that is the moment it becomes a liability, not an asset. 

The only way for me to be wrong is if Iwata is outright lying or will make decisions that go against the strategy he has laid out.

Iwata：

Smart devices have the widest reach and, thus, have the strongest potential for us to be able to connect with the largest number of consumers.

We aim to construct a bridge between smart devices and dedicated video game hardware that connects consumers to our dedicated video game systems.

For the consumers who are connected with Nintendo through smart devices and interested in Nintendo’s IP, we would like to provide even more premium gameplay experiences on Nintendo’s dedicated game platforms. By taking this approach, we firmly believe that doing business on smart devices will not shrink our dedicated video game system business and will instead create new demand as this broader reach will enable us to provide consumers around the world with more opportunities to experience the appeal of Nintendo IP, and instead of trying to seize the other’s demand, dedicated video game systems and smart devices will benefit from the synergies created between them.

There's nothing in that quote that says anything about what the nature of smartphone games can be. He did say all Nintendo IP are on the table and nothing is off limits. 

If anything to me there's a greater chance of synergy here by introducing smartphone gamers and kids to the basic mechanics of many core Nintendo IP and then trying to entice them to buy the bigger versions of those games on the NX. 

A Phantom Hourglass type game on iOS/Android doesn't neccessarily kill future portable Zeldas anymore than A Link Between Worlds on 3DS renders Zelda on Wii U completely moot. Even if all the games have the same fundamental Zelda formula, they are very different experiences. 

If a person is satisfied with just a iOS version of Zelda that is entirely a touch-based experience, to be honest really what were the odds that said person would've bought a dedicated handheld anyway to play a $40 Zelda game? So even in that scenario at least Nintendo made some money off this person versus the alternative which is making no money off them at all.