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Nintendo Going Mobile: Smartphone Game Deal with DeNA [First Games Fall 2015]

Effect

Member
Nintendo Co developer Rare's games too. This only guarantee that DeNA will not create a complete crap. But things like Mario Baseball and Namco's Star Fox happens.

Likely have input on what not to make. For example the idea to make a racer gets pushed Nintendo likely will say no as that could potentially mess with Mario Kart. I doubt we'll see anything that directly assaults franchises on the dedicated platformers. That's not in Nintendo's best interest. Which is why we might not see a full fledge Pokemon RPG. Instead games like Shuffle, Pokepark, or even some form of Rumble.
 
Nintendo Co developer Rare's games too. This only guarantee that DeNA will not create a complete crap. But things like Mario Baseball and Namco's Star Fox happens.

Pls read the news, Nintendo is developing them.

And lol to all the usual trolls asking their "rethorical" questions about when they abandon dedicated hardware forever. You think you shine in your "told you so" attitude when in reality you just again demonstrate your inability to read the news your commenting to. ^^
 
Flappy Mario?

Angry Zeldas?

Something else that's shit, featuring Nintendo's beloved characters?

Whichever way you want to look at it, this is dilution. I never remember this kind of strategy working out for the best.
 

jcm

Member
By mathematics. Take the revenue the industry generated. It was what, $20bn last fiscal year? Determine the amount of developers, amount of players etc.

It should be doing a lot better. Nintendo themselves generated ~25% of that alone last fiscal year. Pokémon from October 2013 to December 2015 generated 5% of that.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, you're wrong. Mobile gaming revenue is growing massively, doubling every year or two. If it's not already bigger than consoles, it will be next year. And comparing Nintendo's hardware revenue to software revenue is dumb. Haven't we had this discussion before?
 

Arkanius

Member
I don't see them supporting a home console, a portable console, and mobile. They proved this gen that supporting 2 machines has stretched them too thin with the WiiU and the 3DS and adding a third platform isn't going to make things easier.

I'm with many in the assumption that their next machine is some sort of portable-home hybrid as it allows their studios to be able to mainly focus on one machine and then frees up resources for some mobile development as well.

That's where DeNA enters the fray, to develop for the third platform
 

TAS

Member
*Cartman Voice* It was inevitaboo...

I've been a hardcore Ninty fan all my life and I see this as a good thing. It will make Nintendo tons of money and create massive exposure of their IPs to a global audience--a large chunk of whom have probably never played a Nintendo game before. This is not a replacement for consoles or handhelds, it's a supplement. Nintendo will NEVER stop making dedicated gaming hardware. They're too damn prideful and stubborn for that. ;)
 

Effect

Member
Flappy Mario?

Angry Zeldas?

Something else that's shit, featuring Nintendo's beloved characters?

Someone posted the picture of the baseball game that is in A Link Between Worlds. Maybe games like that? A mini-game in a bigger game that gets split off into a mobile game. Maybe something like that could happen.
 

Klossen

Banned
I really hope that they have strict quality standards and that we wind up with decent stuff instead of awful microtransaction shovelware with a Mario skin on it.

Imagine a Mario Party with touch screen games inspired by Warioware with asynchronous online play. It could be absolutely amazing. Instead of the crappy free to play games my group chat plays now, we could be playing Mario Party during breaks at work.

Oh well, who am I kidding. Get ready for Clash of Marios, Yoshi of War, and Flappy Kirby.
Problem is that touchscreen controls are by nature extremely restricted and allow for very poor interaction between player and game. This is why most smartphone games are extremely primitive and at best are the games aware of this and adapt themselves accordingly. Nothing's worse than playing console-like titles on smartphone with horrible input rendering the game experience completely useless.

If smartphone gaming is to become a thing, there really needs to be dedicated buttons. Gaming on a platform with a simple touchscreen as means of controller has proven to be dysfunctional. So the barrier for Nintendo isn't only monetization. It's the platform itself.
 

Peltz

Member
I don't see them supporting a home console, a portable console, and mobile. They proved this gen that supporting 2 machines has stretched them too thin with the WiiU and the 3DS and adding a third platform isn't going to make things easier.

I'm with many in the assumption that their next machine is some sort of portable-home hybrid as it allows their studios to be able to mainly focus on one machine and then frees up resources for some mobile development as well.

They can do 3 machines some day if all three have similar architecture. I doubt they'll have 3 machines though.
 

Opiate

Member
And if they do move more towards mobile? I love Nintendo's offerings as much as the next person (I have a Wii U, so probably more so than the average bear), but Nintendo needs to stop utterly ignoring the direction the market is moving and needs to recognize that their current model isn't working and won't magically start working in the near future. Mobile isn't some flash in the pan. It hasn't been for the past 5 years, and if Nintendo continues to ignore it, sooner or later they will miss their opportunity and be left with a failing console model (unless they miraculously come up with another Wii) and no other revenue streams besides Amiibo. Why do you think they are trying QoL?

Absolutely. It isn't just like Nintendo specifically is in a down turn; the home console market generally has a relatively bleak long term outlook. Not that it's in danger of dying, but stagnation and contraction aren't just future boogeymen, they're already here. Dramatic changes will need to be made in order to continue to grow.

I'm not convinced that Nintendo moves will facilitate that -- it's way too early to say -- but it's certainly much better than doing nothing.
 

JoeM86

Member
Yes, you're wrong. Mobile gaming revenue is growing massively, doubling every year or two. If it's not already bigger than consoles, it will be next year. And comparing Nintendo's hardware revenue to software revenue is dumb. Haven't we had this discussion before?

Do you have these figures to match? Figures I found match my statement
 

Kouriozan

Member
I don't think it matters whether DeNA's teams or Nintendo's teams develop the games, for two reasons.
Indeed, they'll be very careful with their IPs, it'll be there to "promote" and raise awareness, not to release some dumb clones with Mario and therefor devalue the IP's power.
 
As a Nintendo fan who is deep in the iOS ecosystem this is entirely unexpected but great news! I would have sworn up and down this would never happen. Guess I was wrong.
 
Pls read the news, Nintendo is developing them.

And lol to all the usual trolls asking their "rethorical" questions about when they abandon dedicated hardware forever. You think you shine in your "told you so" attitude when in reality you just again demonstrate your inability to read the news your commenting to. ^^

Dat salt

But no one is saying they are abandoning traditional gaming, just that it could happen. If their core business keeps degrading in the next years and they became very successful in the mobile market, why wouldn't they?

At this point, and after the recent news I don't see how someone can claim is "impossible"
 

scitek

Member
If you want dedicated hw, the worst case scenario is that the smartphone business attracts the bulk of Nintendo's kid/family market, and strangles the dedi software of audience and revenue for most projects outside of a couple of stalwarts.

This is why I expect they're taking a very measured approach to the mobile market, and it's likely why they took so long to jump in. I think they'll be sure to keep the two experiences different enough to keep both audiences happy.
 

Astral Dog

Member
We are afraid we are loosing the Nintendo we know and love, which we will if their games take off on mobiles.
It was inevitable though, and hinted before.

One thing clear, is that Nintendo doesn't want to leave dedicated hardware/software business, they will keep at it for as long as they can.
 
I don't see them supporting a home console, a portable console, and mobile. They proved this gen that supporting 2 machines has stretched them too thin with the WiiU and the 3DS and adding a third platform isn't going to make things easier.

I'm with many in the assumption that their next machine is some sort of portable-home hybrid as it allows their studios to be able to mainly focus on one machine and then frees up resources for some mobile development as well.

1. Pretty sure the deal with DeNA means they can do the brunt of the work as far as actually developing the mobile games.

2. Merged PLATFORM. Not hardware. That would be really really dumb. And yes I know I said that about them going mobile too. Shut up.
 

Schnozberry

Member
Someone posted the picture of the baseball game that is in A Link Between Worlds. Maybe games like that? A mini-game in a bigger game that gets split off into a mobile game. Maybe something like that could happen.

I'm guessing we'll see a lot of tie-in games that try to immerse you in the worlds of Nintendo's larger internal efforts. I don't think Iwata was lying when he said he wanted to use mobile to direct people to Nintendo's hardware and more expensive software. Doing so with clever games on a small scale is just good business.
 

Tobor

Member
By mathematics. Take the revenue the industry generated. It was what, $20bn last fiscal year? Determine the amount of developers, amount of players etc.

It should be doing a lot better. Nintendo themselves generated ~25% of that alone last fiscal year. Pokémon from October 2013 to December 2015 generated 5% of that.

Of course, correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong. It was $25 billion, and you're missing the key point. That's a 43% increase from 2013. By the end of 2015, mobile gaming is expected to surpass revenue for console gaming for the first time. Not just Nintendo. All console gaming revenue.

Nintendo had to do this, and do it now. In 5 years mobile gaming revenue will dwarf every other revenue stream. It won't even be close.

http://fortune.com/2015/01/15/mobile-console-game-revenues-2015/
 

MartyStu

Member
Fuck. On one hand, this helps Nintendo stay viable in this day and age.

On the other, this is the beginning of the end for their handheld business.

Either their next handheld is a phone or it does not exist. I do not think there is another option.

The kind of games I want to play from Nintendo will never sell at phone prices. :(

This is the end of an era.
 

Griss

Member
Indeed, they'll be very careful with their IPs, it'll be there to "promote" and raise awareness, not to release some dumb clones with Mario and therefor devalue the IP's power.

Yet the amount of "Flappy Mario" posts in this thread is ridiculous.

Why can't people accept that we might actually get something good out of this? I mean, this is finally a reason for me to get an iPhone. It's a reason for me not to immediately sell the next iPad someone gifts me. It means that I might be able to operate in the same sphere of gaming and play the same games as my sister, my mom, my little cousins, and it means that all of those people that I care about might suddenly get a better quality of game. All of that is actually kind of exciting!
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
This to me sounds like Nintendo will be having DeNA make their mobile content and not themselves. So that at least doesn't entirely mean Nintendo's resources will be taken up by this.

Still wondering what this will mean for their handhelds.

Yeah, we really have no idea how many internal resources will be dedicated to this. It could just be quality control and project managers. I doubt Nintendo's top talent gets involved unless they have a big idea that only makes sense on mobile phones and tablets.

This is going well beyond "lending some IP". It's a strategy shift or a third pillar if you want. Of course they will allocate resources to it, they have even a capital venture.

Iwata said:
Many content providers who are succeeding on smart devices are depending on single hit titles. One of my goals here is, now that we are challenging ourselves with this endeavor by making use of Nintendo IP, to produce multiple hit titles at an early stage after we start releasing our software on smart devices.

Also, until now, when we said, “platform,” it meant a specific video game platform. Now that we are going to release games on smart devices and make use of globally widespread PCs and smart devices for our new membership service, we would like to offer more consumers with software that is suited to their tastes. In other words, we are challenging ourselves to redefine what “Nintendo platforms” mean.

With this collaboration with DeNA, a partner with different strengths, we aim to achieve this goal as soon as possible.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2015/150317/05.html
 
The blind optimist in me says this is them backed into a corner and taking that as an opportunity to be overly proactive and future proof themselves while still hoping this will help them sell a new console.

Amusingly enough, the cynic in me agrees, it's just less sure this is gonna work, and thinks this ultimately won't produce games that will legitimize mobile gaming for "hardcores".
 

jerry1594

Member
God damnit. Just please, please, don't release ports of old games.
The blind optimist in me says this is them backed into a corner and taking that as an opportunity to be overly proactive and future proof themselves while still hoping this will help them sell a new console.

Amusingly enough, the cynic in me agrees, it's just less sure this is gonna work, and thinks this ultimately won't produce games that will legitimize mobile gaming for "hardcores".
That's obviously not what they aim to do at all.
 

Vlade

Member
Absolutely. It isn't just like Nintendo specifically is in a down turn; the home console market generally has a relatively bleak long term outlook. Not that it's in danger of dying, but stagnation and contraction aren't just future boogeymen, they're already here. Dramatic changes will need to be made in order to continue to grow.

I'm not convinced that Nintendo moves will facilitate that -- it's way too early to say -- but it's certainly much better than doing nothing.

The issue at hand is that this is a different industry segment with different players and different technology and market holders. it has always seemed that a contraction or moving to the new segment both spelled doom, one just allowed them to maintain control. I, frankly, take from this announcement that they have finally cracked a pathway with some partnerships that they have found better than the doom of the first type.

I hope it's good, but to say this move was always the best choice is rather unsympathetic to the position Nintendo is in. they aren't sony nor ms, this industry was their turf.

edit:
I think I'm agreeing with you, except that this move was difficult, not clear.
 

Kansoku

Member
I wonder if everything will be available worldwide from the get go. I don't really trust NoA to do a good job anymore (I'm still mad about the regular n3DS :<)
 

Oppo

Member
I don't think it matters whether DeNA's teams or Nintendo's teams develop the games, for two reasons.

1. We've seen how Nintendo handles second party development or licensed third party development before. They're like hawks, and they have people monitoring and micromanaging development. This can be a pain in the ass (see the early days of Retro, or some early meetings with Next Level before the made Luigi's Mansion 2) but it produces great games that meet Nitnendo's standards.

2. The comment about not porting old games shows that Nintendo is aware that their trump card is their IP and the fact that they produce the highest quality games in the business (which is why their IP is so beloved). They are the luxury marque of gaming. They won't let external devs mess this up. They won't allow DeNA to release anything Miyamoto or Iwata wouldn't be happy with coming from one of their own studios.

Whether it's internal or external, it should be quality.

Well... Mario Party 10 is a thing. A thing that could have easily landed on a phone. And is pretty bad. Nintendo is not perfect.
 
Okay, so now that I've confirmed that I am actually awake and this isn't some weird dream:

People keep going on and on about how terrible this is, but what choice did Nintendo have? The WiiU is selling like dogcrap, and the dedicated handheld space has been contracting rapidly for several years now. The 3DS will be lucky to sell more than half as much as the DS at this rate, despite completely dominating the Vita. That's largely due to the rise of smartphones, which have siphoned off the casual gamers that made both the Wii and gaming handhelds viable products.

The QoL thing is a total crapshoot--we don't even know what it is exactly. They've only now just announced their next console with only a vague promise of more info next year. So that's a minimum of 1.5-2 years before it's out and we don't know if it'll even sell well. If nothing else, this deal serves as a means to boost their earnings and give them a bigger cushion to plot out their plans in dedicated hardware.
 

dwells

Member
Problem is that touchscreen controls are by nature extremely restricted and allow for very poor interaction between player and game. This is why most smartphone games are extremely primitive and at best are the games aware of this and adapt themselves accordingly. Nothing's worse than playing console-like titles on smartphone with horrible input rendering the game experience completely useless.

If smartphone gaming is to become a thing, there really needs to be dedicated buttons. Gaming on a platform with a simple touchscreen as means of controller has proven to be dysfunctional. So the barrier for Nintendo isn't only monetization. It's the platform itself.
While touchscreens and no physical buttons are certainly a limitation, they can be worked around. It's still possible to create great games, but they have to take the input method into account.

That's why I suggested something like a Mario Party Warioware hybrid. Warioware has already dealt with using a touchscreen for minigames, and there's plenty of opportunity there to build upon that.

Genres that don't require quick and precise input work well on mobile devices as well. Titles like Paper Mario and Pokemon would lend themselves nicely to a smartphone platform.

Designing games around physical buttons would be a huge mistake. Even if there were an official Apple branded controller attachment and accompanying API, market saturation would be too low to bother. The vast majority of people don't have any interest in carrying around a physical budget attachment for their phone.
 

SmokyDave

Member
This is my outlook.

Out of any of the largest manufacturers, Nintendo has always been the most likely to successfully transition to a different market.

They've been doing nontraditional inputs since the N64, and they haven't really fucked up since.

Hell their entire development structure almost seems tailor made to devices like this. Entire bite sized games designed around relatively simplistic ideas. Ideas that would have traditionally been a "minigame" in a full production Mario or Zelda, can now be full endeavors for mobile.
Precisely. I honestly think they can smash it and help raise the mobile bar for everyone. This is what they do best.

On another note. How fucking weird is it man, that you, the SmokyDave, are fully behind a Nintendo idea?
Heh. Thing is, all of my problems with Nintendo start and stop with their hardware and services. Today has been all about them sticking to what they do best, and letting others do the rest.
 
Yet the amount of "Flappy Mario" posts in this thread is ridiculous.

Why can't people accept that we might actually get something good out of this? I mean, this is finally a reason for me to get an iPhone. It's a reason for me not to immediately sell the next iPad someone gifts me. It means that I might be able to operate in the same sphere of gaming and play the same games as my sister, my mom, my little cousins, and it means that all of those people that I care about might suddenly get a better quality of game. All of that is actually kind of exciting!

The idea of mobile games has been poisoned by the scores of low hanging fruit/low effort offerings out there, despite the number of good games out there currently
 

Astral Dog

Member
Dat salt

But no one is saying they are abandoning traditional gaming, just that it could happen. If their core business keeps degrading in the next years and they became very successful in the mobile market, why wouldn't they?

At this point, and after the recent news I don't see how someone can claim is "impossible"
You should read previous comments, they are sure Nintendo will abandon traditional systems.

Will they? its a possibility, but not for mobile/tablets, they have said before, its not a sustainable model for them, just like they said they will use smartphone gaming for some things.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
It was inevitable though, and hinted before.

One thing clear, is that Nintendo doesn't want to leave dedicated hardware/software business, they will keep at it for as long as they can.

Yeah true, but sad. As least we have those 32 years of quality gaming forever.
 
You're wrong. It was $25 billion, and you're missing the key point. That's a 43% increase from 2013. By the end of 2015, mobile gaming is expected to surpass revenue for console gaming for the first time. Not just Nintendo. All console gaming revenue.

Nintendo had to do this, and do it now. In 5 years mobile gaming revenue will dwarf every other revenue stream. It won't even be close.

http://fortune.com/2015/01/15/mobile-console-game-revenues-2015/

Again though, that's across a vastly larger userbase with far, far more developers, which is the main point. Even if mobile gaming as a whole makes more revenue than console gaming, that's still split up between far, far more devs than consoles have to deal with. It doesn't matter to anyone but apple and google and the like how much revenue the market as a whole is making, since they only get their own cut. Also, you're extrapolating the growth which is a statistical fallacy.
 

FryHole

Member
God damnit. Just please, please, don't release ports of old games.

That's obviously not what they aim to do at all.

From the press conference this morning

We have no intention at all to port existing game titles for dedicated game platforms to smart devices because if we cannot provide our consumers with the best possible play experiences, it would just ruin the value of Nintendo’s IP.
 

Effect

Member
I'm guessing we'll see a lot of tie-in games that try to immerse you in the worlds of Nintendo's larger internal efforts. I don't think Iwata was lying when he said he wanted to use mobile to direct people to Nintendo's hardware and more expensive software. Doing so with clever games on a small scale is just good business.

Exactly. This is where my mind is going more and more. We sort of see that on the home console front with Captain Toad. Just the same thing applied to mobile which we also have an example of that to a degree with Pokemon Shuffle and P&Z Mario Edition. Something that spins out of an IP or game and directly leads back to that game on the console or hand held. That's far better then an advertising app. Due to it being Nintendo will be worth buying because you know they aren't likely to half ass majority of it.
 

Steph_E.

Member
The thing is that there appears to be three major groups of gamers spending lots of money at the moment...
1. Hardcore console narrative gamers...
2. Hardcore competitive gamers on PC and Console...
3. Casual mobile gamers...

You missed out a group - Nintendo fans ..... Oh! :)
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
Investors are happy.

CATiSknU0AIXIMp.png:large
 

Nocturno999

Member
I think at the very least they are going to release mini games or titles that "make sense for mobile" like Dr Mario.
I can see them phasing out consoles in the future and starting to release main titles for PC and mobile at the very least.
They simply can't grasp a solid online infrastructure and third party support to continue.
 
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