| Soundwave said:
They've denied having interest in and even downplayed smartphone games for years. Iwata has said several times on record that they will not make games for smart devices, even as recently as like 8-9 months ago. IMO if they were sitting on some Wiimote like idea for the NX that had a fair chance of taking off and becoming a hit, they wouldn't be doing this. This isn't some small experiment either, a almost $200 million dollar investment in DeNA may honestly be the largest investment in their company history. They could make a smartphone game or two I'm sure if they really wanted to "test the waters" ... this is a full blown shift in business strategy. Interally I think some thing big happened at Nintendo, there probably was a faction within the business structure of the company that was extremely unhappy with the company current and future business prospects and Iwata came under a lot of pressure to make this decision. |
As they denied releasing a new model of the 3DS a week before its announcement. PR. Until the time was right, Nintendo planned to stick to its guns, but as the market changed and as Nintendo experimented with mobile-like experiences on its own devices, the door opened wider and wider until they felt that they could safely enter the market with harming the value of their games or their brand. (Also, from what I recall, Iwata hasn't made a hardline stance on smartphone games since 2011, with more recent comments showing that Nintendo was sticking out its feelers).
Once again, the statement that Nintendo wouldn't be doing this if they had a "wiimote like idea" is merely supposition. If Nintendo felt like this could be a venue for increasing their brand power and gaining an additional source of revenue, why wouldn't they do it?
