Nintendo should release their back catalogue on iOS

[Nautilus]

Barkley said:

Nautilus said:
It is quite the same as Sony releasing their games on other platforms.I mean, they would probably make a killing if they released PS Now on PC for example.

PS Now is available on Samsung Smart TV's it wouldn't surprise me at all for it to continue to launch on other non-playstation and even non-sony devices.

The only reason to keep software exclusive to a platform and incentivise the purchase of hardware is to make profits through third party software and subscription services. As PSNOW offers both Third Party software and a subscription service in itself it's not really an issue in this regard. It's another closed sony platform, just one that is available on multiple devices, thus it differs to if they were just releasing their games on steam for example. Hardware doesn't make money.

As for Nintendo, without the 3ds it'd be a no brainer for Nintendo to release their games on non-nintendo systems, as the WiiU has neither third party nor a subscription service to warrant limiting the profits of nintendo software just to draw people to their platform. 3ds does get some decent third party support from publishers such as square enix and capcom so that is an incentive to keep franchises exclusive to Nintendo Platforms.

Yes and no.I think you are especially wrong in the part that the only reason to keep software exclusives is to get the profits from third partys and subscription services.First that you could easily create a program that requires a subscription fee in other platforms that has success.Think PS Plus or XBox Live without the paywall for internet use and you got it.I mean, Xbox Live on 360 already did that and was successful.The free games every month, plus the discounts they throw every now and then exclusives to the service is more than enough to make people jump in.And who knows, they may think of something that makes it more atractive.

Second reason that i think you are wrong is that they dont do it only to get the cut from third party games.You subestimate the kind of profit that you can have from first party game, at the very least for Nintendo.While it is debatable for Sony and Microsoft, since they dont plubish and sell gangbusters(think Fallout 4 or COD levels of sales) you might be right for them on this one, but for Nintendo is a different story.Just look at the attach rate for games on Wii U.Hell, for all the mistakes that the Wii U did and the horrendous droughts it had, Nintendo supplied the console almost by itself and did a somewhat decent job of it.Games on 3DS that Nintendo owns sells millions upon millions, and also its not one or two titles that have done that, but many.If you need further examples, just go one generation earlier.On the Wii, Nintendo has dozens of titles that sold over 10 millions.And that just overshadows the profits done by the cut of the money they make on third party.The same can be said for the DS.And that brings me to the next point.

If Nintendo were to go third party(which is what you are basically implying), the profit they get on each of their titles would fall considerably.Now, Im not sure of the numbers, but I would say that each physical copy sold they get around 75%(?) out of it, and digitally it is 100%.If they were to publish on other machines, be it PC, mobile, PS4 or XOne, the profit would fall to 60-50%(?) for physicals and about 80% for digital.You could argue that they could compensate for increased numbers sold the lack of total profit per unit, but they would lose something more important:total control over their decisions.Now, this is a personal opinion of mine, but since Nintendo wouldnt have created their own hardware, they wouldnt know how to take full advantage of their power and as a consequence the games would suffer for it.Not only as a third party, you would have as much freedom to do what you want as the owner of the platform.Other thing that I also find important to note is that I personally believe the industry would suffer as a whole.I lost count on how many times Nintendo revolutionized the industry and kept pushing it further, adn we all stand to lose if that went away.

To the point at hand, while I may have overreacted a bit about VC games being available on other platforms(If Nintendo did like its own program(that Nintendo itself controls) that allows you to play VC games on PC and has cross-play with Nintendo hardware,I could see it somehow working), I believe you are wrong about the rest because of the reasons listed above.Plus, I think its also important to note that Nintendo is one of the few companies that are not as interest in profit  than making great games.I mean, they are still a company so of course they want to make money, but they are not afraid to make high risk choices that could potentially make them lose money, just for the sake in what they believe will make their games better.So I dont think Nintendo is doing that(releasing their VC games on other platforms) anytime soon.