Topic: Nintendo Will Not Bring Games to Smartphones

[NWR_Karlie]

Pokémon Company is working independently on their game for iPhone and Android.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27144

Nintendo will not be bringing any games to smartphones and will develop software only for their own hardware platforms. This strategy â€śhasn’t changed and won’t change,” said Yasuhiro Minagawa, a spokesperson for Nintendo Co., Ltd.

This comment was in response to the announcement of a smartphone game from The Pokémon Company featuring the franchise. Though the company is 32 percent owned by Nintendo, they are working independently on the iPhone and Android release.

Nintendo's shares rose almost 5 percent in response to the announcement, though fell to less following clarification on their position on smartphones.

Pokémon le Tap was announced recently for a summer release on the iPhone App Store and Android.

[Enner]

It would a weird day if it ever comes that The Pokemon Company separates from Nintendo in a way that Nintendo has no control over them. Maybe that's when the Pokemon MMO that some people want will come.

[ThePerm]

**** Nintendo buy the whole company now!

[StrikerObi]

Called it in the Newscast we recorded on Tuesday. Will be up on Saturday.

[TJ Spyke]

Nintendo had to have given them permission to do this since The Pokemon Company has no ownership of the Pokemon franchise, all they do is handle licensing and marketing for it. I think the statement just means Nintendo themselves will not be doing any games for smart phones.

[Ceric]

Nintendo had to have given them permission to do this since The Pokemon Company has no ownership of the Pokemon franchise, all they do is handle licensing and marketing for it. I think the statement just means Nintendo themselves will not be doing any games for smart phones.

I don't think thats right.  Because technical the characters could just be licensed to the game and that would totally in their jurisdiction going from what you said.  Either way Pokemon is very associated with Nintendo.  They need to bring it totally in the fold as they did with Kirby.

[TJ Spyke]

Nintendo themselves created The Pokemon Company to handle the licensing and marketing of the Pokemon franchise. Nintendo owns about 2/3 of the Pokemon franchise (through themselves and Creatures, Inc., Game Freak is the other but they work just for Nintendo now). Either way, there is no chance of a Pokemon game showing up on a system Nintendo doesn't want it to (i.e. you will never see a Pokemon game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3).

[stevey]

Nintendo wont but their 2nd parties can?

Metroid Dread 360 confirmed!

[famicomplicated]

I think we're missing a crucial point in this story - what does this say for other non-game Nintendo apps?


I'm talking a official free NWFC app, one that lets you check your friends online status, maybe with some kind of Club Nintendo integration too that lets you register games and purchase C.N stuff on the go too?


Is all that completely off the cards for Nintendo? It wouldn't be breaking their "no Nintendo games on the app store" rule would it?

[Ceric]

Yeah, I see what your getting at Famicomplicated.  It would be sort of silly not to allow integration of the social aspect of the new Nintendo systems into portable arenas.  Like my phone is connected to XBox Live (Which ironically I've had a gamertag since the start but I've never owned any of the XBoxes.)

[StrawHousePig]

I'm talking a official free NWFC app, one that lets you check your friends online status, maybe with some kind of Club Nintendo integration too that lets you register games and purchase C.N stuff on the go too?

This idea is pure genius and insidious as hell at the same time! I love it. And put out some free titles in the eshop! Free games are like crack that keeps you coming back again and again. Even a $1 sale. Get your users hooked already!


Also, while using the eshop I can't help but wonder if anyone at Nintendo uses it themselves. Three clicks to start a stinkin' video? Why? I can't tell you how many game pages I see that don't even have a video attached yet a search for said game reveals a video for it. The eshop looks nice but it's not that easy to use. Get Miyamoto on the MF pronto. Or some other designer that knows usability and enjoyment go hand-in-hand.

[Oblivion]

Not easy? Are you in 1st grade? It's just as easy to use as the PSN and XBLA (Or whatever that's called) store. In fact, can you stream videos of their games straight from the shop? No, you have to DOWNLOAD it. (I was talking more about the PSN, but whatever.)

[StrawHousePig]

Not easy? Are you in 1st grade?

Actually, no I am not.

Perhaps you care to explain why the B button suddenly stops working while viewing a screenshot? Or why there are only five titles per page on the wish list? Or why you have to back out to the main menu to be able to search by title / keyword? Why is text searching not part of the "Search" menu item where it would seem to make a lot of sense? How about utilizing saved searches? Any idea how infinitely useful those are? How about auto-complete based on what's available in the eshop? And how about my 1-click starts a vid? "Ooh, there's a vid! *click* *joy*"

Like I say, it does look nice and it loads pretty zippy, but it needs a jolt in the usability department.

[famicomplicated]

The Japanese have never been good at usability when it comes to websites/online stores.

It all stems from how they see and absorb data differently to people the west, what we see as clutter and confusion they see as colourful and interesting, which is all fine and good until we have to use their products! (see Wii/DSi/3DS/PSN online shops)

[broodwars]

Personally, I really don't care for the 360's Marketplace, though I do like how you can purchase things online and add them to your 360's queue for download when you get home.  I just find it a hassle to find things on that marketplace quickly, especially for New Releases.  My big complaint about the Wii Shop is that the servers are unbearably slow to load pages and data isn't as well organized as it should be.  I do like the PSN Storefront, though.  It's pretty quick and easy to find what you're looking for, though like the Wii Shop sometimes pages don't like to load so you have to try them a few times.  And yeah, PSN's download speeds are pathetic compared to the 360's.

As for the topic, it's not really a surprise that Nintendo doesn't want to put games on smartphones.  Nintendo has made it very clear over the past year that they deal in luxury products, and they feel that products such as cellphone games are destroying the games industry with their cheapness.  While that may be a decision that comes back to bite them in the ass sometime down the line, I can't say I disagree with their decision.  I like that someone's upholding the traditional handheld gaming market and not following Apple's lead with bite-sized cheap games.  I just wish they allowed developers more freedom in putting games like those on their online stores.

[TJ Spyke]

I prefer the Xbox Live Marketplace to PlayStation Store, especially if you are looking for what is new. PlayStation Store also seems to freeze for a couple of seconds if you decide to have something load in the background and then back out to the menu.

[NWR_insanolord]

The Xbox 360 shop and the PSN shop are both good but flawed in different ways, and both are better than the Wii, which is, in turn, much better than the godawful DSi Shop. Honestly, I like the 3DS Shop better than either Sony's or Microsoft's. It's quicker to get around in.

[famicomplicated]

The Wii Shop channel wouldn't be too bad if each page loading instantaneously.

But it doesn't - so it's not...