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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Someone has to say...Nintendo needs a phone

prayformojo on 10 August 2014
Ouroboros24 said:

Okay, so it's been the DS, and the 3DS.  More or less, the 3DS is a beefier DS with 3D capability.  That's all fine and dandy because the DS and 3DS are making a ton of money.  That being said, it's starting to become boring.  With the ever presence of IOS games looming above NIntendo's heads, it becomes a growing concern for nintendo to put their games on those systems.  But they aren't, they just aren't.  It's always been Nintendo(Philips CDI noted) properties on Nintendo consoles, simple as that.  That means that no outside machines other than the ones they own. 

But you can't ignore the present of mobile gaming.  It's here already.  The possibility is here whether you like it or not.  The truth of the matter is that iOS far exceeds what Nintendo could possibly do with a games only mobile machine.  It's a uphill battle Nintendo could not possibly do.  And the threats are there, games on iOS are becoming more and more of a threat.  Ace Attorney is one example of a huge hit being taken away from Nintendo.  It's a touch based game that require no buttons for you to play the game.  It's certainly not the first of it's kind, but it is a noteworthy title to the DS's history.  And it doesn't stop there, phone companies are getting wiser, implementing new strategies with their next version of their phones.  Just imagine one of the phone companies really starting to develop a mobile with the gamer in mind.  It may flop, but if it's not Nintendo doing it, it's not good for Nintendo because one of these days it will be a success. 

As a final thought, I want to say how much effort Nintendo would have to put into making a machine that worked well, and still be a cell phone.  The design has to fit the gamer's needs, as well as sustain the same feelings smart phone users are having now.  It has to streamline like a normal phone and be a gamer's machine at the same time.  It is incredibly hard for them to do, but they have too.  If a successful phone manufacturing company creates it before Nintendo, it would be a repeat of the rise of Sony for Nintendo.  And this time, it may be them to be the next dreamcast(I mean for mobile consoles only).


The 3DS is going to sell more than 50 million units, possibly more. If the next handheld sells 35 million, they'll still make bank. So personally, I wouldn't jump into the mobile thing until it's absolutely neccessary.

If that time comes, they will be more than ready.



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Jumpin on 10 August 2014
Squeezol said:
Jumpin said:
Squeezol said:
That's like that N-Gage thing. It won't work at all. You can't mix phones with gaming efficiently, sadly.

That's not a very good example at all. N-Gage did everything wrong, it was a terrible phone and a terrible handheld. I doubt Nintendo would make those mistakes. The industry has advanced significantly since that time. What you are saying is the same as saying look at CD-I, clearly you can't mix disks and consoles, cartridges are the only option.

I'm talking about combining a phone with a handheld. It doesn't work even if you do it right.

You're going to have to provide an argument to back your claim.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

ICStats on 10 August 2014
Blob said:
I see everyone dissmissing this idea here but to me this is what Nintendo needs to do if they want to maintain a handheld presence.
Everyone has a phone on them at all times, imagine if it was also a legitimate gaming device that played pokemon too. This would be huge in japan, swaying third party support there, and I suspect that if sony decides to give the handheld space another shot they will release a phone/handheld hybrid.

Everyone has a phone on them at all times, that's why Nintendo needs to get into the smartphone game business.

Getting into smartphone hardware to create an integrated Nintendo hardware/software smartphone is a whole other proposition.

It basically means doing what Amazon has done with their own flavor of Android and App Store.  Amazon had to build up very slowly though, making no profit on the hardware, offering free games, and marketing for app developers to publish on their store,  etc.  Even so the Amazon Fire phone seems set to sell just a few million units a year by which point it will be obsoleted by new hardware.

Nintendo doesn't have 1/10th the scale of Amazon, and if they have just a few million user base it is not a good platform to sell games on.  Better to target the billions of existing users on the Android, iOS & Amazon app stores.



My 8th gen collection

Soundwave on 10 August 2014

Nintendo would get slaughtered, a lot of you underestimate how competitive the smart phone market is. Nintendo is small potatoes with mediocre marketing and would have no app support. They can't even get video game developers to support them, how are they going to build an app ecosystem to match up against iOS and Android as a complete outsider? Ubuntu, lol?

No chance.

Beyond that there is a pricing issue here too, I don't think many people want to pay more than a $1 for a mobile game period.

The only way Nintendo could have a chance is if they partnered with Google or Samsung or Apple or Sony (yeah I said it) or some other big phone provider to create a sub-branded phone that has full app support, but even that would be problematic because how do you resolve Nintendo games at $39.99 versus $1 of free apps? It would be like McDonalds having a $30 hamburger on their menu, people would just order the Big Mac instead. 



Dr.Henry_Killinger on 10 August 2014
Blob said:
I see everyone dissmissing this idea here but to me this is what Nintendo needs to do if they want to maintain a handheld presence.
Everyone has a phone on them at all times, imagine if it was also a legitimate gaming device that played pokemon too. This would be huge in japan, swaying third party support there, and I suspect that if sony decides to give the handheld space another shot they will release a phone/handheld hybrid.

First off, Nintendo is not a Hardware Company and developing a full blown OS would be a waste, but a widget or app, or a games hub is a good idea.

Also

  1. Sony Mobile Communications
    Telecommunications company
  2. Sony Mobile Communications AB is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Lund, Sweden, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. Wikipedia
  3. Founded: October 1, 1987
  4. CEO: Kunimasa Suzuki
  5. Founders: Sony Corporation, Ericsson


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Ouroboros24 on 11 August 2014
Squeezol said:
That's like that N-Gage thing. It won't work at all. You can't mix phones with gaming efficiently, sadly.


N-Gage didn't work because it didn't work.   The formula is out there, and when the game makers find it, it'll be the next generation of mobile gaming.



Soundwave on 11 August 2014

To be honest, really all smartphones need to be able to play games like 100x better is some kind of small physical directional input.

The reason 90% of smartphone games suck is because of on-screen d-pads/sticks, if you could use even something like a trackball or small analog nub to control a central character/vehicle it would make about 20 different major genres of games far more playable.

Maybe you could even add L/R style shoulder buttons for primary attack/jump commands too.

That would be good enough to make some decent games. You don't neccessarily need to have one of those giant button monstrosity add-ons with 10 buttons + 2 analogs + d-pad on them IMO. No one wants to carry around a phone like that and a slider design is fat and ugly looking.