| RolStoppable said: They aren't retreating from mobile, rather they have no intent to increase the number of games they'll release on smart devices. Their strategy has always been about IP awareness to drive people to their dedicated gaming hardware, and said IP awareness was going to be achieved by smartphone games that have a long life. The article mentions Square-Enix's strategy for comparison, which is the release of dozens of smartphone games for one and the same IP, but that's something that Nintendo never had any intent of doing. One game per IP was Nintendo's mantra, so that's something that was always bound to result in a stagnant number of new releases with an eventual decline being a real possibility. Likewise, Nintendo's core business (dedicated gaming hardware) was always going to remain their focus, so nothing new on that front either. If someone expected that Nintendo would eventually grow their efforts for smartphone games, then they didn't understand Nintendo's strategy to begin with. In that context, it would appear as if Nintendo is retreating right now, but the reality is more that the release schedule of smartphone games has its up and downs just like the release schedule on dedicated gaming hardware. Nintendo released two smartphone games per fiscal year on average and during the last fiscal year they released rather early while this fiscal year it's going to be late until there is something; this creates a large gap in release timing, but that isn't conclusive to speak of a retreat. Something that would be more substantial in terms of retreat would be if Nintendo ceased to maintain and update the smartphone games they have already released. |
Agreed
