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Frogger on 26 March 2015
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Soundwave said:

Nintendo going mobile is basically part of its own merits ... Nintendo simply stands to make a ton of money by doing so.

I think it really is just that simple.

If a few more kids decide to buy a Nintendo dedicated portable or console as a result, that's just icing on the cake, but it's not the cake itself.

In a couple of years it's quite possible mobile games will be the no.1 money maker for Nintendo, they need DeNA to keep those games running, Iwata has said they're aiming to leverage their existing IP into several smartphone titles that are big hits.

I tend to be cautious about getting overly grandoise about things like Nintendo's online services ... remember when people were touting Miiverse as some kind of huge game changer? Lets be real, even if there is a service like the one outlined in the OP, "being as important to someone as their Facebook or Twitter app" is a massive, massive reach.

Game sharing, unified network ID is something Sony has been doing for ages, this is more like Nintendo (as per usual) being about 8-9 years late to that party.


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.