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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo retreating from mobile

KrspaceT on 22 June 2020

Now here is a very interesting article.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-21/nintendo-chills-mobile-ambitions-after-animal-crossing-success[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/06/nintendo_to_cut_back_on_mobile_games_after_animal_crossing_success_says_report[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-is-reportedly-cooling-its-commitment-to-mobile-games/[/URL]

Basically between how well Animal Crossing N.H has done and some design incompatability Nintendo is leaning away from the things for a good while.

I do feel like Pokemon and Gatcha are as compatible as Fire Emblem and Gatcha, but Pokemon is notably not mentioned....also as far as I can tell Masters lacks swimsuit seasons. Still I'm hardly complaining



The Democratic Nintendo fan....is that a paradox? I'm fond of one of the more conservative companies in the industry, but I vote Liberally and view myself that way 90% of the time?

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Agente42 on 22 June 2020

Nintendo uses cell phones as a Trojan horse for dedicated platforms, Nintendo never intended to focus on the mobile market. Nintendo goes wild on the mobile market is the same wet dream Nintendo goes to third party. 



Agente42 on 22 June 2020
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



DonFerrari on 22 June 2020

Seems like their mobile games is bringing profits and possibly bringing people to their platform, all win.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

hunter_alien on 22 June 2020

Yeah, as others pointed out, Nintendo never intended to use mobile games for more than marketing tools. Sure, they make money, so that's an added bonus, but they remained laser-focused on releasing high-caliber titles, hence the success of the Switch.



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IcaroRibeiro on 22 June 2020

Fire Emblem Heroes though... I had no idea it was that popular



DonFerrari on 22 June 2020
IcaroRibeiro said:
Fire Emblem Heroes though... I had no idea it was that popular

I played for 6 months, it was good play.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

Soundwave on 22 June 2020

Didn't the Nintendo president say they wanted mobile to be a $1 billion/year business for them? I'm guessing Mario Kart and Animal Crossing on mobile wasn't as big of a hit as they were projecting. While they've probably done well, they're not huge blockbusters on the mobile market the way Pokemon Go was. 



Dyotropic on 22 June 2020

5 out of the 6 mobile games they release were financial failures. Don't blame them for leaving the mobile game space.



Majin-Tenshinhan on 22 June 2020

Hey, good news.