Nintendo's sudden and surprising willingness to move into the mobile market continues to leave many scratching their heads, wondering just how Nintendo is planning to enter the market. Today Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, addressed some concerns on the topic. Though whether his answers will sate some worries or ignite others is unclear. The topic of choice was the growing methodology in Japan for mobile games to target "whales," a minority of players willing to spend extravagantly on free-to-play titles. Iwata, quite straight forwardly, responded that Nintendo has no plans imitate this strategy.

Iwata makes clear that Nintendo's goal is to "entertain hundreds of millions of consumers all around the world" which he indirectly makes clear is at odds with the whale hunting strategy:

"As we at Nintendo aim to reach all consumers around the world, we have no intention to analyze and follow successful examples in the Japanese smart device market. My understanding of how to succeed in the Japanese market now is to find a limited number of generous consumers who are willing to spend a lot and analyze what encourages them to spend. However, if we did that, I don't think that we would be able to entertain hundreds of millions of consumers all around the world or to produce large and long-lasting achievements."

It's especially striking that Iwata makes clear that Nintendo recognizes that this whale hunting strategy is successful, especially in the Japanese market. Recognizing the success of this strategy and then rejecting it, I think, shows that Nintendo both disapproves of it fundamentally and also that they think their strategy will be just as if not more successful. Considering how rare this perspective seems to be in the ever-growing mobile market, I think it's fair to say that Iwata's statement and Nintendo's goals are rather brave. Now they just have to put their money where their mouths are.

Considering that both Konami and Square Enix, among several other major Japanese developers, have uniformly rejected Iwata's methodology in favor of increasing their investment into these whale hunting mobile titles, Nintendo's pioneering attitude has the potential to cause quite the stir. Yet what exactly Nintendo's methodology means in terms of game playability remains to be seen. Still, any trend away from whale hunting back towards more traditional gaming experiences in the mobile market is one to cheer for.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/26845-nintendos-mobile-focus-to-avoid-games-designed-for-a-limited-number-of-generous-consumers/

*gasp* It looks like Iwata is a human being, capable not screwing over his costumers.
*wink* Square Enix and Konami *wink*

Nintendo will thrive if Nintendo is popular - I think Iwata has the idea. Use this mobile software to yes, make some money, but most importantly, make sure that it is bringing Nintendo to lots and lots of people (especially kids). This means quality fun software that doesn't fleece the player of money.

The consequence of this strategy is that Nintendo as a brand reclaims some of its former glory, leading to increased hardware and software sales plus increased merchandise sales etc.

"Whale hunting" is complete short-term thinking.

This may sound really idealistic and will be hard for them to pull, but I like the approach Ninten wants to take with the mobile market : ) They don't sound like they're in it to get as much out of consumers through terrible practices, such as microtransactions or pay to continue nonsense, but to provide a genuinely great experience on smartphone devices. I hope Ninten is successful in this and makes some really great games on mobile devices for everyone to play : )

I definitely agree with you there.

Makes sense.

Don't wanna alienate the general consumer with a product that only die hard Nintendo fans can really enjoy and appreciate.