Bloomberg: Nintendo's Mario Pressured to Jump to iPhone

[jwluther]

Lock if old.

In “Super Mario 3DLand,” Nintendo Co. will make its iconic Italian plumber battle turtle-like Koopa Troopas on its 3-D player. The company instead should develop titles for Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone, investors say.

The rift highlights the dilemma President Satoru Iwata faces as consumers shun Nintendo devices to play games on iPhones, iPads and Facebook Inc.’s website. The flop of the 3DS debut prompted the company to slash prices 40 percent in Japan starting today, the first time the games developer has resorted to such a move within six months of a product’s debut.

Iwata, who’s said Nintendo will only make titles for its own products as long as he’s in charge, should scrap that strategy to avoid further alienating investors who’ve driven the stock to six-year lows, fund manager Masamitsu Ohki said. One option may be acquisitions as the past successes of the Wii and DS helped Nintendo, the world’s largest video-game maker, build a 1.05 trillion yen ($13.7 billion) war chest in cash, equivalents and short-term investments.

“Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry,” said Ohki, a fund manager at Tokyo-based Stats Investment Management Co. “Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.”

He declined to identify his holdings or to name any companies that Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo should consider as acquisition targets. Yasuhiro Minagawa, a spokesman at Nintendo, declined to comment beyond statements made previously by Iwata.

Ohki isn’t alone in saying Iwata should reconsider his strategy. On July 6, Nintendo shares jumped the most in almost four months after Pokemon Co., a former unit, said it’s developing a game for the iPhone and handsets running on Mountain View, California-based Google Inc.’s Android software. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) sent a note to clients saying the move indicated Nintendo may begin making titles for products outside its proprietary hardware.

Hours later, Nintendo denied any change in strategy, and the shares surrendered gains.

“They just don’t get it,” MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. said in a sales note that day, referring to Nintendo. “Sell the stock, because a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are.”

Given the concerns over the outlook of Nintendo’s handheld and home-console business, which account for most of the company’s profit and sales, Nintendo should make better use of its more than $10 billion cash pile, investor Tetsuro Ii said.

“Nintendo should aggressively make acquisitions or increase returns to its shareholders,” said Ii, president of Tokyo-based Commons Asset Management Inc., which held 2,200 Nintendo shares as of February, according to the company’s website. “It’s management’s task to consider how to make use of the cash.”

Source

 

[confused]

WHAHAHAHAHAHA !! yeah.

 

[thuway]

Herewego.gif

 

[Kintaro]

My god. People are on Nintendo like fucking vultures.

 

[Visualante]

Would be a death sentence to Nintendo hardware.

 

[Silver_DNA]

Do these investors even know what they're investing in?

 

[TheOddOne]

Smh.

 

[eastmen]

This is the problem with the stock market .

No one cares about the health of the company or its staff , they just want to make more money for the stock owners.

 

[Freezie KO]

“Nintendo should aggressively make acquisitions or increase returns to its shareholders,” said Ii, president of Tokyo-based Commons Asset Management Inc., which held 2,200 Nintendo shares as of February

Shareholder says to increase returns to shareholders.

 

[AniHawk]

they should make skyward sword for the iphone too.

 

[PansenHansen]

No thanks.

 

[Gravijah]

fuck yeah i can't wait to play uncharted ipad

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Investors in knowing nothing about how to run a videogame company shock.

 

[Riposte]

Lock if old.

Should be locked because this idea has gotten old a long time ago.

(Nintendo would sooner make their own phone it seems.)

 

[archnemesis]

Clueless.

 

[Einbroch]

Isn't there already a ridiculously similar Mario game on the iOS store? I think I remember seeing a thread on it here...

 

[squicken]

They are totally screwed in the portable market, but expecting this current leadership to do something as technologically challenging as enter the cell phone market is absurd. They are so out of touch on convergence devices they aren't giving Wii 2 DVD or BR playback.

Iwata was awesome and made a lot of people money, but he's probably not the guy to get them out of this.

 

[KingJ2002]

yeah... no.

i will agree that the 3DS design could have been better but...

let's save this talk after a new mario and pokemon platformer releases.

 

[Salsa]

lol investors

 

[FunkyMunkey]

Everytime someone compares lenghty full-fledged videogames to the iphone's or i-anything's "apps", I realize my palm and face would need to be planetary sized to accurately represent the ridiculousness.

This article is full of nonsensical BS.

 

[watershed]

I don't think it will happen any time soon but I can see Nintendo doing a hardware partnership in the future.

 

[upandaway]

These people are in love with loving Apple (to to be confused with simply loving Apple). They just can't see straight.

 

[legend166]

Investors, in this case, are stupid.

Nintendo will probably sell 10 million copies of Mario on 3DS. And that's on the low side. That's $400,000,000 in revenue.

No one is making that much money on the App Store.

Nintendo is exactly the kind of company that shouldn't go to the App Store. They can very clearly still demand a premium price for their software. Why would they throw that away to sell things for $1?

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Do these investors even know what they're investing in?

Nope not really. If you've actually read the Investor Q&A's you's see that a lot of them are complete morons who know nothing about the industry (remember the person who said "I hate video games, they're a waste of time"?)

My god. People are on Nintendo like fucking vultures.

Welcome to 1996-2011, where everyone wants Nintendo dead.

 

[Durante]

I don't like Nintendo much, but I don't think they deserve having to make smartphone games.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Who in their right mind would want to play Super Mario Bros on a touchscreen?

 

[Eteric Rice]

This is the problem with the stock market .

No one cares about the health of the company or its staff , they just want to make more money for the stock owners.

This.

Fuck the stock holders.

 

[Jamie OD]

Ridiculous idea.

 

[markot]

Nintendo should buy Nokia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Feep]

Moronic. Completely different products and markets. No Nintendo game in existence could even be made to work with a touchscreen...

Except maybe Pikmin.

Spoiler

Okay, get Pikmin on iPad, Nintendo!

 

[Monocle]

no thx

I'd rather Mario were turned into a series of tabletop games. Seriously.

 

[LiK]

lol investors

.

 

[Gravijah]

Who in their right mind would want to play Super Mario Bros on a touchscreen?

if these investors were smart they would be asking for kirby nightmare in paintland ios

 

[Takao]

We should also pressure Microsoft and Sony to stop all hardware development and develop platform agnostic games.

lol no

 

[Kintaro]

And now we know why Valve stays private and a lot of other companies should consider doing the same.

 

[markot]

And now we know why Valve stays private and a lot of other companies should consider doing the same.

srsly >.<

 

[Erethian]

Investors, in this case, are stupid.

Nintendo will probably sell 10 million copies of Mario on 3DS. And that's on the low side. That's $400,000,000 in revenue.

No one is making that much money on the App Store.

Nintendo is exactly the kind of company that shouldn't go to the App Store. They can very clearly still demand a premium price for their software. Why would they throw that away to sell things for $1?

Because the argument for smartphones is as much a media narrative as it is something driven by hard data.

 

[Alrus]

They are totally screwed in the portable market, but expecting this current leadership to do something as technologically challenging as enter the cell phone market is absurd. They are so out of touch on convergence devices they aren't giving Wii 2 DVD or BR playback.

Iwata was awesome and made a lot of people money, but he's probably not the guy to get them out of this.

Really? I mean really?

 

[Nemo]

I do agree with this

Nintendo should aggressively make acquisitions or increase returns to its shareholders

Go buy some creative devs Nintendo! I want designers to make games using 3D in gameplay and come up with something much more than a menu screen for the WiiU controller. No reason not to use that money

 

[Auto_aim1]

$10 billion? I thought they had more than $15 billion in cash. But it's funny how times change. A few years ago, no one would have thought Nintendo would have to deal with all this.

 

[kadotsu]

Lets hope the App and Facebook market aren't bubbles and have some time before they peak. Because there will be alot of unemployed people if they are. Other than that, every time Nintendo should go 3rd party they rebound quite significantly.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

And now we know why Valve stays private and a lot of other companies should consider doing the same.

Valve has a money printing press called Steam. Most companies don't.

 

[markot]

I think Nintendo doesnt want to 'nanny' more devs, it hasnt had the best experience with outside acquisitions. I would like them to open up some more dev houses world wide though >.<

 

[erlim]

I'm sure once the next hardware cycle starts with wiiU plus this holiday season when mario comes out for 3DS nobody will make speculation like this untill wiiZ and 4DS come out.

 

[FunkyMunkey]

We should also pressure Microsoft and Sony to stop all hardware development and develop platform agnostic games.

They should just dissolve their game divisions into dev teams focused on .99 cent flash games since that's the future some try to say... LOL

 

[Krev]

Time to buy Nintendo shares?

 

[2th]

Would be a death sentence to Nintendo hardware.

.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

$10 billion cash pile. And you want them to jumpshift to Apple? Heh.

Can we STOP making threads about "Analysts" and "Investors"? They are pathetic and contribute nothing to the gaming industry than being the laughing stock.

 

[Zzoram]

Valve has a money printing press called Steam. Most companies don't.

They built Steam from scratch without investment money. They earned their position.

 

[Kintaro]

Valve has a money printing press called Steam. Most companies don't.

Yeah, yeah whatever. You get my point.