This comment was posted on ParisLemon, way back in 2013:
Your naivety over Nintendo is astounding. They simply will never give up their properties to iOS or any other mobile platform. Sure, the Wii U is failing (and rightly so, it’s a sub par, last gen, slow system), but their DS and 3DS business is doing just fine. I do foresee a future where they focus on portable gaming only, but it’ll be with their own hardware.
That was directed at ParisLemon proprietor M.G. Siegler, who responded:
I’m not saying that Nintendo is going to go out of business anytime soon, I’m saying that they will face some very tough choices sooner than you seem to imagine. At that point, someone — be it new leadership or a buyer — will come in and see the untapped value just sitting on the table with Nintendo’s game IP. I’m not saying that’s necessarily the right thing to do. I’m just saying it will happen. The wheels are already in motion.
I just want to add, damn you John Gruber for so totally nailing the term Claim Chowder. I just cannot come up with a term of my own I like better.
Unless I misread the news release, nothing’s shipped yet. There could still be a flip-flop on this.
Not that I agree with the first comment, but inevitability is also not something I can agree with.
I can’t see them flip flopping after the press release, conference, and stock swap (and whatever other agreements already signed).
And note the plan is for new games rather than any console ports (old or new), so it’ll be interesting to see what type of stuff they end up putting on mobile. Nintendo’s been experimenting with free to play games, while I imagine DeNA already has a crapload of experience there.
Nintendo has been similar to Apple over the years in maintaining quality by controlling both the hardware and the software. 1st party games have always been the flagship on every system because Nintendo is very good at melding hardware and software.
I agree that Nintendo will have some tough decisions to come as stand alone devices disappear, especially in mobile. But I think they will have a hard time relinquishing control of the hardware, and ultimately being at the will of the hardware maker, in development of new games.
I just want to play NES and SNES games on my iPhone without jailbreaking.
I still think they will “give up their properties”, meaning you’ll get the full Nintendo experience on mobile devices. Rather, I expect them to use the platform to leverage their own devices. Like a gateway drug.
Nintendo’s take on the “ice water in hell”-analogy that Steve Jobs made.
Like iTunes (and the iPod!) on Windows.
What Siegler meant was always more like Apple licensing Mac OS to other companies in the 90s and that won’t happen with Nintendo!
My naïvete (and relative disinterest) about games exceeds that of most, but
I’d very much like to know more about Nintendo’s internal management, and whether this issue has been the center of any kind of power struggle of the kind that removed Ballmer from Microsoft.
There is plenty of “Claim Chowder” spewed by Siegler as well, lest we not forget the numerous times he has declared console gaming dead as we moved into the current generation. Potentially surprising only to Siegler, Sony has done gangbusters with the PS4, as has Nintendo with the 3DS. Frankly, now that it has decent software even the Wii U is fairing much better. We also do not know what Nintendo’s long term plan for mobile is at this time. Let us wait until there is more info on the table before we champion Siegler as some sort of console gaming fortune teller.
you are smoking something really good if you believe you are going to see the main Mario or Zelda game on mobile. That’s simply not going to happen. At best you will see Mario Party.
doubt it, but I do believe they see money in “free to play” games.
I foresee Nintendo will further extend their “Miiverse” and get people hook on the Mii network with mobile games, and try to lure them to buy their main consoles.
“In the digital world, content has the tendency to lose value, especially on smart devices. We finally found solutions to the problem. We will not merely port games developed for our dedicated systems to smart devices just as they are—we will develop brand new software which perfectly matches the play style and control mechanisms of smart devices.” – Iwata