| Soundwave said:
Can you find me a quote where they said profits from smartphones aren't important to them and this is purely a venture to advertise home/dedicated devices? I watched the presser live and read the statement from Nintendo and also read the Time Magazine interview. They never said that. They said they were hoping for synergy but they never said that was their sole purpose. What they did say back before this decision was they were trying to figure out how to use mobile in a way to advertise their platforms, but they were also saying then that would not make smartphone games full out, so obviously that whole plan went down the toilet at some point. I don't think there will be nearly as much overlap here, Nintendo is going into mobile for its own merits. If they get some cross over, so be it, it's icing on the cake, but again as I said it's not the cake itself. The cake itself is mobile revenue ... revenue which who knows very well could be Nintendo's no.1 money maker in a few years. Personally I think dedicated portables are going to decline no matter what Nintendo did, and consoles ... to be honest, the big mistake they made there was letting Microsoft ever come into the the industry and get a foothold. They needed to either head them out way back in the GCN era or have made an agreement/partnership with them before they decided to go full blown with the XBox brand. Once they allowed Sony to walk into the industry and then let Microsoft do it too ... their days as a big player in the home console biz were always numbered. People don't want three console brands, it's only worked with the Wii and that required a miracle controller fad to pull off, something Nintendo hasn't come close to ever replicating. |
This is from an intervire with Time right after the confrence. You were right - it wasn't at the press release. My mistake. Not that it makes a difference. The point is that Nintendo's initial stance has not changed.
"Also, it’s even more important for us to consider how we can get as many people around the world as possible to play Nintendo smart device apps, rather than to consider which payment system will earn the most money." - Iwata
"We have come to the stage where we can say that we will be able to develop and operate software which, in the end, will not hurt the value of Nintendo IP but, rather, will become an opportunity for the great number of people around the world who own smart devices—but do not have interest in dedicated video game hardware—to be interested in Nintendo IP and eventually to become fans of our dedicated game systems." - Iwata
What I never said was that profiting on smart phones wasn't important to them. I also never said that the only reason they moved to mobile was to bring mobile players to dedicated gaming hardware. Nintendo has stated many times that they want mobile to be an integral part of their platform. I've already said that. One branch isn't more important than the other.
What I did say is that getting as many people as possible being connected to the Nintendo brand was the priority. Nintendo cares more about building its brand than making a short term profit off mobile. That doesn't mean they aren't planning to make a profit - you don't plan a 100m unit hit without expecting to make a hardy profit, but Nintendo is prioritizing making mobile money over spreading its brand, like I said.
There is overlap. The entire point of going mobile is the overlap. The primary focus of making this massive step into mobile is to is to create that omnipresence. To be that platform that you always have access to. To have gaming contantly be a part of your daily life, no matter where you are and what you own. Nintendo's using mobile as one of the ways that it doesn't need to depend on mobile to be it's No. 1 source of income. Not because their mobile division isn't making enough money, but because they used mobile to facilitate building their brand back into something that could make money from all facets of the company again. From phones to handhelds to consoles. That's the end goal.
Your opinions on the vitality of handhelds and home consoles by Nintendo in the future have absolutely nothing to do with how the company themselves feels about them. Nintendo has made it clear on many occasions, including this conference, that they remain focused and passionate - those are their words - on producing successful and profitable gaming hardware. No company, especially not Nintendo, would use profits from mobile merely as a way to continue producing failing hardware while still being able to making a profit. No sane entity works that way. Just as they are ambitious about trying make their mobile games successful, and just as they are ambitious about "expanding the gaming populace" through Nintendo software and the Nintendo brand, they will be ambitious in creating massively successful handheld, and they will be ambitious in creating massively successful console hardware.
That's not just a business thing. That's a pride thing, and it would be ignorant to think that, seeing their track record, Nintendo isn't a company who's decisions aren't at least partially dictated by pride. No matter your opinion on whether handhelds will fizzle away and whether Nintendo has no chance in the home console race, Nintendo are clearly not making these decisions based off of those sentiments. They're basing them off of the opposite.
