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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The mobile games industry gives their opinions about Nintendo entering the mobile space

Ninten78 on 19 March 2015
MohammadBadir said:
RealGamingExpert said:

"Imagine playing Zelda on a smartphone? Now that’s a dream come true.”

Kill me.


I'm sorry but your pointed respond made me laugh out loud :P and The true Mario,Zelda,Metroid games will always be on consoles.I think it will just be minigame like experiences or spinoffs on mobile



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Soundwave on 19 March 2015

The Spirit Track/Phantom Hourglass games were alright.

There's no reason that line of Zelda games (and the Wind Waker artstyle, maybe tweaked a bit) couldn't continue on iOS/Android.

Even though I don't really care for the F2P model ... that starts with say the first dungeon for free and other dungeons/weapons coming online later ... yeah that would work.

They could look pretty nice graphically too with that art style, would really pop nicely on the Retina display of an iPhone or iPad.

There's no point in going mobile if its just going to be a half ass job, there's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. Now that Nintendo has made this choice they are going to have to commit to it.



Soundwave on 19 March 2015
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

See you've run out of arguments. 

I just got a good chuckle out of your post, that's all. You can't even say that I didn't warn you.

Anyway, you've given a clear demonstration that you didn't understand what Nintendo announced, but I will try to explain it to you. A smartphone Zelda the way you described would compete with a console Zelda game like A Link Between Worlds. The latter is something that Nintendo currently sells for $40 on the 3DS. What would be the ceiling on smartphones, maybe $20? And just like that, Nintendo would have devalued their IP by 50%. Nevermind that such a Zelda game has to be crossed off the list of games that can sell a Nintendo handheld and lower hardware sales will lead to lower software sales overall.

So what you proposed is an absolutely ridiculous idea.

I'm just reciting what Iwata said. 

He said devaluing IP in reference to the mobile games being of poor quality and being ports of existing games (which would lead to a poor experience since button based games don't always translate well to mobile). 

He said ALL Nintendo IP are on the table for smart devices. 

I think Nintendo reviewed the issue you are talking about ... the fact that having Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/etc. games on mobile platforms would erode the handheld market, and I think they simply got to a point where the reward simply outweighed the risk, that is the potential amount of money that they can earn from mobile is enormous. 

The people who really want dedicated handhelds will buy one anyway, I imagine is Nintendo's feeling. The people who were going to ditch those devices for smartphones were going to do so anyway and nothing Nintendo was doing with the 3DS was stopping it. So I think given that Nintendo simply made choice here ... it's better to still make money off those people than lose them entirely (and also be walled off from a new generation of kids entirely). 

And honestly they may very well be right. It's not like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy games stopped selling on the 3DS even though "real" FF and DQ games are available on iOS. Monster Hunter is on iOS too ... and it's "real" Monster Hunter, not some little mini-game title. Monster Hunter still sells fine on the 3DS. Minecraft is on mobile and selling through the roof there, yet kids still buy it on console like crazy too. The market for dedicated portables may indeed decline in the next 4-5 years ... but it was going to do that likely no matter what Nintendo did. At least this way they'll be making money one way or another. 



Soundwave on 19 March 2015
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

I'm just reciting what Iwata said. 

He said devaluing IP in reference to the mobile games being of poor quality and being ports of existing games (which would lead to a poor experience since button based games don't always translate well to mobile). 

He said ALL Nintendo IP are on the table for smart devices. 

I think Nintendo reviewed the issue you are talking about ... the fact that having Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/etc. games on mobile platforms would erode the handheld market, and I think they simply got to a point where the reward simply outweighed the risk, that is the potential amount of money that they can earn from mobile is enormous. 

The people who really want dedicated handhelds will buy one anyway, I imagine is Nintendo's feeling. The people who were going to ditch those devices for smartphones were going to do so anyway and nothing Nintendo was doing with the 3DS was stopping it. So I think given that Nintendo simply made choice here ... it's better to still make money off those people than lose them entirely (and also be walled off from a new generation of kids entirely). 

And honestly they may very well be right. It's not like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy games stopped selling on the 3DS even though "real" FF and DQ games are available on iOS. Monster Hunter is on iOS too ... and it's "real" Monster Hunter, not some little mini-game title. Monster Hunter still sells fine on the 3DS. The market for dedicated portables may indeed decline in the next 4-5 years ... but it was going to do that likely no matter what Nintendo did. At least this way they'll be making money one way or another. 

Like I said, Nintendo's goal with this move is to grow the sales of their dedicated game hardware. They aren't throwing in the towel and accept a shrinking market for their hardware like you believe. That's why Nintendo won't shift the gameplay styles of their games onto smartphones like you anticipate. Square-Enix and Capcom are third party publishers, so they don't care much about which platforms their games sell on. Nintendo, however, wants to sell their own hardware. Making mobile games is about raising awareness for their IPs, not replacing what was previously potentially their handheld market.

Iwata：

While this is not something directly relating to the collaboration that we have announced today, here is one thing I would like to mention to avoid any misunderstandings.

Nintendo has decided to deploy its video game business on smart devices but it is not because we have lost passion or vision for the business of dedicated video game systems. On the contrary, now that we have decided how we will make use of smart devices, we have come to hold an even stronger passion and vision for the dedicated video game system business than ever before. Nintendo has made this decision because we have concluded that the approach of making use of smart devices is a rational way for us to encourage even more people around the world to recognize the great value of the wonderful game software available on our dedicated game systems.

People aren't going to recognize the software on dedicated hardware as great value when they can have the same thing for a fraction of the price. So that's a clear "no" to a full Zelda adventure on smartphones.


I think you're wrong and we'll see. 

I think one of the best ways to grow the brand is to have some 8/9-year-old kid who wouldn't have otherwise played Zelda at all this gen, get hooked on a Phantom Hourglass type Zelda F2P game on iOS. Start with 1-2 dungeons, then he/she can download others and voila, now they kinda know the rudimentary basics of the Zelda franchise (Link does a spin-attack, oh the dungeons are like puzzles you have to figure them out, neat, oh a lizard boss), etc.

You know Zelda, you think it's great, but how the hell is a 8-11 year old today supposed to know that? Some of these kids weren't even born when the DS/Wii launched, lol. 

And maybe just maybe some of those kids will then say "y'know Zelda is cool, oh awesome they have Zelda on NX and it's like super epic I'm checking this out". And maybe they won't, but I think Nintendo is willing to let it ride and take that risk. 

And again even for third parties, I'm sure Capcom is heavily invested in Monster Hunter selling well on the 3DS. The iOS version has done nothing to stop that. 

At the end of the day too hardware only exists to serve Nintendo, you seem to have the opposite view that Nintendo exists to serve hardware. Hardware is not supposed to prevent you from reaching your audience, the moment it starts doing that is the moment it becomes a liability, not an asset. 



Never on 19 March 2015

I hate most smartphone games and free to play is almost always done terribly... And Nintendo wants a piece of that industry.

As someone who really liked spirit tracks I could actually imagine a good touch screen Zelda game on smartphones... I'm expecting simple games from Nintendo, though. They'll go after the candy crush market. If they do something good hopefully they'll release it on console too.



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Soundwave on 19 March 2015
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

I think you're wrong and we'll see. 

I think one of the best ways to grow the brand is to have some 8/9-year-old kid who wouldn't have otherwise played Zelda at all this gen, get hooked on a Phantom Hourglass type Zelda F2P game on iOS. Start with 1-2 dungeons, then he/she can download others and voila, now they kinda know the rudimentary basics of the Zelda franchise (Link does a spin-attack, oh the dungeons are like puzzles you have to figure them out, neat, oh a lizard boss), etc.

And maybe just maybe some of those kids will then say "y'know Zelda is cool, oh awesome they have Zelda on NX and it's like super epic I'm checking this out". 

And again even for third parties, I'm Capcom is heavily invested in Monster Hunter selling well on the 3DS. The iOS version has done nothing to stop that. 

At the end of the day too hardware only exists to serve Nintendo, you seem to have the opposite view that Nintendo exists to serve hardware. Hardware is not supposed to prevent you from reaching your audience, the moment it starts doing that is the moment it becomes a liability, not an asset. 

The only way for me to be wrong is if Iwata is outright lying or will make decisions that go against the strategy he has laid out.

Iwata：

Smart devices have the widest reach and, thus, have the strongest potential for us to be able to connect with the largest number of consumers.

We aim to construct a bridge between smart devices and dedicated video game hardware that connects consumers to our dedicated video game systems.

For the consumers who are connected with Nintendo through smart devices and interested in Nintendo’s IP, we would like to provide even more premium gameplay experiences on Nintendo’s dedicated game platforms. By taking this approach, we firmly believe that doing business on smart devices will not shrink our dedicated video game system business and will instead create new demand as this broader reach will enable us to provide consumers around the world with more opportunities to experience the appeal of Nintendo IP, and instead of trying to seize the other’s demand, dedicated video game systems and smart devices will benefit from the synergies created between them.

There's nothing in that quote that says anything about what the nature of smartphone games can be. He did say all Nintendo IP are on the table and nothing is off limits. 

If anything to me there's a greater chance of synergy here by introducing smartphone gamers and kids to the basic mechanics of many core Nintendo IP and then trying to entice them to buy the bigger versions of those games on the NX. 

A Phantom Hourglass type game on iOS/Android doesn't neccessarily kill future portable Zeldas anymore than A Link Between Worlds on 3DS renders Zelda on Wii U completely moot. Even if all the games have the same fundamental Zelda formula, they are very different experiences. 

If a person is satisfied with just a iOS version of Zelda that is entirely a touch-based experience, to be honest really what were the odds that said person would've bought a dedicated handheld anyway to play a $40 Zelda game? So even in that scenario at least Nintendo made some money off this person versus the alternative which is making no money off them at all. 



melbye on 19 March 2015
Soundwave said:

The Spirit Track/Phantom Hourglass games were alright.

They would have been far more enjoyable with buttons. I really don't want to play a game like that again.



Soundwave on 19 March 2015
melbye said:
Soundwave said:

The Spirit Track/Phantom Hourglass games were alright.

They would have been far more enjoyable with buttons. I really don't want to play a game like that again.


Well that's the wonderful thing about choice. You don't have to enjoy it or play it. 

Having said that, as distasteful as it may be to others, a Zelda game like this on iOS/Android would probably have upwards of 20 million users, which more than any Zelda game in history. By a huge a margin at that. 

Even the Wii, Twilight Princess sold like 5.36 million on the Wii total, and Skyward Sword at 3.3 million or so ... not exactly mind blowing numbers. I don't think either one really brought the franchise to a lot of new players. 



POE on 19 March 2015

Nintendo games will be top notch no mather in wich device they will be.



Soundwave on 19 March 2015
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

There's nothing in that quote that says anything about what the nature of smartphone games can be. He did say all Nintendo IP are on the table and nothing is off limits. 

If anything to me there's a greater chance of synergy here by introducing smartphone gamers and kids to the basic mechanics of many core Nintendo IP and then trying to entice them to buy the bigger versions of those games on the NX. 

A Phantom Hourglass type game on iOS/Android doesn't neccessarily kill future portable Zeldas anymore than A Link Between Worlds on 3DS renders Zelda on Wii U completely moot. Even if all the games have the same fundamental Zelda formula, they are very different experiences. 

Iwata clearly said that it's of utmost priority that Nintendo IP doesn't get devalued. That means quite a few things are off limits.

If you want to continue to reference Iwata, post his quotes instead of voicing your interpretations of what he might have said.


You are posting interpretations, he never said there can't be a Zelda adventure game on the iOS. If you have that quote, maybe take your own advice and post it. What he did say is they won't port existing button-based games to smart devices because the user experience would be unsatisfactory. As per which franchises ...

As for which Nintendo IP will be used, we do not intend to make any exceptions. Potentially, any Nintendo IP could be used in our smart device software. - Satoru Iwata

So we know at minimum no Nintendo IP are off limits. He never actually spoke at all in his presser event about crippling or limiting smartphone apps to be mini-games or anything like that. 

That's just something you are assuming, if anything he reference several times that the games on smartphones must be of high quality. 

To be honest Nintendo has so many IP that really it doesn't hurt to spread some of them out. 

Like just for Zelda alone there are several Zelda sub-series' 

3D Zelda (OoT, MM, Skyward Sword, etc.)

2D Zelda (Link Between Worlds, Link to the Past)

Musou Zelda (Hyrule Warriors)

Touch Zelda (Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks)

What's wrong with one of those series variants being on iOS? Like it or not iOS/Android devices are now part of the Nintendo family.