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

M

MegalonJJ

Banned
Will be very interesting to see how this develops and even though Iwata has announced the NX, IF the mobile venture significantly outpaces their dedicated hardware, what direction they'll take in 2-4 years from now.
 
N

Not

Banned
ShockingAlberto said:
Everyone knows the Nintendo story.

They were this company that was doing alright until Yamauchi came in, this brash kid with business acumen to the moon, and struck a deal to put Mickey Mouse on Hanafuda cards. To some degree, Nintendo's always been chasing that same miracle move - the thing that just changes the entire world around them and they can ride off to success. Mario, Pokemon, the Wii, etc. It is why Iwata has always said that one game can change everything. It can't (long-term), but it's why he believes it.

I think this collaboration with DeNA is the same thing, but this time with the old school sense of business that helped them out in the first place. As Nirolak explained before, this is a win-win for both companies. DeNA has something to gain, they now have their Mickey Mouse on Hanafuda cards moment here. Nintendo is giving them Mario to put in games. So let's talk about what DeNA gains from this.

DeNA is big, but big isn't enough. They need to grow to have a public perception of constant growth, because stagnating is the first step in dying. What they got here is a strong, well-known library of IPs to use to push forward that growth. I don't think recognition of Nintendo IPs has waned significantly over the years, but the desire and willingness to pay significant amounts of money for them definitely has. The base that will pay $60 for a new 2D Mario has shrunk from 30 million to probably less than 5 million now. DeNA also recognizes this and is taking advantage (smartly) of Nintendo's weakening ability to leverage their IPs in a safe place.

For Nintendo, this gets their IP in front of a 100 million person market who will pay to see those IPs. It is a marketing dream, where you're spending money on production but then people are giving you that money back, and then some, to essentially watch your advertisements. This doesn't just dovetail back to the game business, it also helps Nintendo's other expansions into different media markets. The Zelda TV show, the Mario movie, if those things end up existing, reminding the world they're still relevant is a smart way to drum up interest. It keeps the shareholders off Iwata's back, too. Plus, I imagine the Appstore cultivators are going to make a big deal about this. Mario's going to be at the front of the Apple Appstore, the Google Playstore, etc. Apple might even mention it during a reveal event, which would skyrocket downloads of whatever it is.

The uneasy pit everyone has in their stomach isn't because what this news actually is, but what it represents. It is Nintendo's acknowledgement that Mobile has eaten the handheld space's lunch. It is acknowledgement that Nintendo is in a weaker position than they were eight years ago. I think people need to realize that, too, since Nintendo already has. You can tell Nintendo also fears gamer reaction to it, because the NX announcement is so strange - not that Nintendo is new to strange console announcements, the 3DS was announced via a badly-scanned PDF late at night after Mainichi Shimbun leaked it beforehand. But this just seems...confused. They desperately wanted to assure gamers that this was merely one tentacle of Nintendo's future operations.

I don't think that part worked so well. Granted, there is no way to make it work. You show anything, then all your current systems are dead. Or deader, in the case of the Wii U. You don't show anything, all your current systems are still going to be dead, but people will be questioning every single game release as "Yeah, but why isn't this on the next one?" Not to say they handled it well, just that Iwata picked a fist fight with the ocean and it's kind of no surprise he's covered in seawater.

The optimist in me says all of this is merely the labor pains of a Nintendo that understands their problems and needs to just push to get the baby out. That's the ideal scenario. But how well any of this works is going to rest solely on execution and they have to know that, if they don't, then none of this even matters. If the mobile games aren't good, and they could very well not be, then there's only so long people are going to care. If the next console, which we don't even know if it's a handheld or a set-top console or both, fails to catch on like the Wii U, then they've done nothing but moved from one failure to a more expensive failure.

Nintendo's in a weird position where they've decided that enough hens have gone missing and they're asking the wolf to watch the henhouse and figure out why. It's the best move they can make, but they're never going to get those missing hens back.
Click to expand...

Wow, I didn't know the "Nintendo story." Thanks, SA!
 
Labrynian Rebel

Labrynian Rebel

Member
furious-outraged-sick-with-anger-o.gif
 
B

Bulbasaur

Banned
After the initial shock and having digested the news my thoughts are this is actually a good move. I'm sure it will definitely increase Nintendo's profile among children, which has been in decline for some time now. It was actually naive to think they'd never go this route, as both short and long term it could make them a ridiculous amount of cash.
 
Z

Zizbuka

Banned
Bluth54 said:
Nintendo just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Nintendo fan culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like EA where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw over a Nintendo fan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is that Nintendo fans, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Nintendo games for mobile, nor will they purchase any of Nintendo's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Nintendo has alienated an entire market with this move.

Nintendo, publicly apologize and cancel your mobile games or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...

How does one go about becoming an expert in "Nintendo fan culture"? And does it pay well?
 
J

JoeFu

Banned
I don't mind this at all. If Nintendo is going to be developing the games that means we are getting more Nintendo games, and if anyone is going to get fun touch screen controls right, I think Nintendo can do it. We're still going to get "real" games and we'll get more fun little side projects in the form of mobile games.

I do hope that their next handheld does well though. I would still rather have a dedicated handheld gaming device with physical buttons.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Bluth54 said:
Nintendo just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Nintendo fan culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like EA where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw over a Nintendo fan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is that Nintendo fans, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Nintendo games for mobile, nor will they purchase any of Nintendo's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Nintendo has alienated an entire market with this move.

Nintendo, publicly apologize and cancel your mobile games or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...

They've gone and done it... they've gone and woke the sleeping dragon now.

Nintendo should have left well enough alone and now they're going to get it. It's not enough that they're bleeding benjamins from practically every crevice of their existence. Now they go and throw immense moneyhats at a niche company like DeNA just to piss off the market. Why pay to keep your handhelds out of the hands of as many gamers as possible? Why not put that money into first-party studios and console games instead?

I know, I know... this is the way the business goes as they say. Well, they forced Microsoft's hands with their early sales lead and Microsoft only responded with an NPD whooping (source: musings thread) by way of incredible deals and value. Microsoft will undoubtedly follow this announcement up with some real megatons of their own.

Gears remake collection on ios. A true Banjo sequel on Android. Halo 5 beta in the hands of gamers. The next Flappy Bird, Angry Birds and Candy Crush as exclusives. Those are the kinds of blockbuster response announcements I expect, and then some. You hit Microsoft with a jab, you best be ready for a flurry of uppercuts coming at you in response.
 
D

Disaster Nebraska

Banned
My takeaway isn't "lol Nintendo is finally folding and going mobile". My takeaway is "Nintendo is finally making an account system."

Not only that, but it appears they're trying to leapfrog what is currently out there on game consoles by going more of the Amazon Prime/iTunes route. The "dedicated platform" may still be a Nintendo system, but hey if you're a PC gamer and you want to enjoy Nintendo games too (with the understanding that it may not be as ideal as a dedicated Nintendo system) then you can do that too.


Please also note that, even if we use the same IP on our dedicated video game systems and smart devices, we will not port the titles for the former to the latter just as they are. There are significant differences in the controls, strengths and weaknesses between the controllers for dedicated game systems and the touchscreens of smart devices. 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.
Click to expand...

I think their behavior with the New 3DS is a hint at what they'd like to do. Update hardware every few years without actually starting a "new generation", and it's easier to jump onto the new system because you have your stuff tied to an account. This is risky but it's the same sort of thinking that guided the DS and the Wii. Being tied to the same ol' hardware has been an issue since the inception of console gaming. If they can successfully break away from that....hoo boy.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
M3d10n said:
The only thing they'll be selling are IAPs. If Nintendo was going to release premium mobile games, they wouldn't need DeNA. Mobile premium games are a niche and no, they don't usually sell in enough volume to make up for the lower pricepoint and 30% Apple/Google fee.

Mark my words, Nintendo is going for F2P, online, games-as-a-service market, the one that actually makes money in mobile-land. That's what they really mean when they say they aren't going to port any games and build games designed for mobile.
Click to expand...
DeNA has been porting PC games. Premium, no IAP. They recently released And Yet It Moves on IOS
 
M

Maggots

Banned
I'm looking forward to how they will utilize this company with companionship apps... clearly nintendo makes games better than they make applications...

I'm hoping this will ammount to

1. eShop Application for smartphones and PCs
2. miiverse application
3. other companion apps for Nintendo Games (Akin to the ACIV trade routes app) perhaps a mario kart app or smash bros app
4. Pokemon shuffles and other simple games that can make extra cash flow to fund future Hardware projects
 
dcx4610

dcx4610

Member
Nintendo made it clear recently that they will use mobile devices only as way to bring awareness to their brand and to lure people to buy their handhelds and consoles.

People have the wrong idea if they think they are going to see Super Mario 64 or similar on phones. It's more Nintendo letting DeNA use their characters in games.

You'll see things such as a Mario themed Angry Birds or Candy Crush type games. At the most, you might see trial or demos of actual Nintendo games in an attempt to get you to buy a system to play the full thing.

Nintendo isn't going mobile, they are just doing mobile advertising.
 
S

Sammy Samusu

Member
They need money to fund Retro's open world RPG.

I think going mobile was a great decision, it will spread the Nintendo gospel, and help them financially. I'm looking forward to it, so they better release it internationally, and make it Android compatible!
 
PrintedCrayon

PrintedCrayon

Banned
Is there a reason for some of this wild over-reaction? People are losing their shit just from Nintendo entering a partnership with DeNA to enter the mobile space. Surely it's clear to any Nintendo fan that this is a smart move, most people complaining likely have a smart device too, so how can this be anything but good news?

Nintendo can license their IP for dedicated mobile style games, whilst still focusing on core titles for consoles and handhelds. I really cannot see a disadvantage to opening themselves to more platforms.
 
M

Maedhros

Member
It's so funny to see the comments from Nintendo forum dwellers here and compare it to the smartphone base reactions: almost everyone liked the idea, as opposed to the "Nintendo/gaming is doomed" from the forum's dwellers.
 
A

AniHawk

Member
i'm a little surprised that so many people are expecting this to be the 'beginning of the end' as it were. i guess it's because you could see this sort of thing coming for over a year now... and at least since iwata's statement at the january 2014 investors meeting. he likened digital to 'a sort of platform' and statements of the next nintendo systems being 'brothers' made me believe the new nintendo system would be more of a shared library, with different hardware units specializing certain features and games. and that seems to be exactly what's happening]/i].

the biggest surprise, kinda, is the support of smartphone from internal developers, but i'm going to take a bit of a wait and see approach to that. something tells me super mario galaxy 3 isn't happening there, but i can totally see mario maker being in the works for this service/platform. i just doubt there's going to be a lot of super high end games for mobile/pc, at least early on. maybe after next gen is over, in the 2020s.
 
N

Neoxon

Junior Member
Aren't DeNA making that Marvel Mighty Heroes game that's oddly devoid of any characters Fox has the movie rights to?
 
M

Muzy72

Banned
What if the reason Mario Maker got delayed is for a mobile companion app?

Make levels on the go, play them at home on your Wii U
 
The Hermit

The Hermit

Member
AniHawk said:
i'm a little surprised that so many people are expecting this to be the 'beginning of the end' as it were. i guess it's because you could see this sort of thing coming for over a year now... and at least since iwata's statement at the january 2014 investors meeting. he likened digital to 'a sort of platform' and statements of the next nintendo systems being 'brothers' made me believe the new nintendo system would be more of a shared library, with different hardware units specializing certain features and games. and that seems to be exactly what's happening]/i].

the biggest surprise, kinda, is the support of smartphone from internal developers, but i'm going to take a bit of a wait and see approach to that. something tells me super mario galaxy 3 isn't happening there, but i can totally see mario maker being in the works for this service/platform. i just doubt there's going to be a lot of super high end games for mobile/pc, at least early on. maybe after next gen is over, in the 2020s.
Click to expand...



I think the same as you and am very surprised about Shocking Alberto´s post too.

Its not like they are making games for PS4, they are basically going mobile on their own terms.
 
P

poponon

Banned
HYYYYPEEEE . mobile is a gaming platform, get over it.

Hopefully all their games are free to play with fun (not buy to win) microtransactions.

This is the future! believe
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Godzilla's Left Toe said:
Did you say something?
Click to expand...
You really think that because Nintendo is dipping its toe into the mobile market means their entire console output of Mario and Smash and Mario Kart and Zelda and more will suddenly crash and burn? I mean, you did agree with the guy who phrased it as "whatever actual games Nintendo still releases"

You know, Sony also got into the mobile market and released a few games. They even released CounterSpy on IOS. And yet, last I checked, Bloodbourne is one of the most anticipated games on GAF. Their console output didn't suffer.
 
A

AniHawk

Member
More_Badass said:
You really think that because Nintendo is dipping its toe into the mobile market means their entire console output of Mario and Smash and Mario Kart and Zelda and more will suddenly crash and burn? I mean, you did agree with the guy who phrased it as "whatever actual games Nintendo still releases"

You know, Sony also got into the mobile market and released a few games. They even released CounterSpy on IOS. And yet, last I checked, Bloodbourne is one of the most anticipated games on GAF. Their console output didn't suffer.
Click to expand...
there were people who though that with the wii, nintendo was killing gaming, or at the very least, had quit gaming. and that's despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary.
 
R

_Ryo_

Member
I dont understand why so many people are assuming Nintendo are going to make crappy mobile games and not make full experiences.

For the most part they have always been about the user experience being of quality and I dont see how this changes that. Making crap games isnt something they're likely to do. But apparently those that are upset about this new direction for Nintendo have to find every possible way to put a negative spin on it since they didnt want it to happen. Like I said earlier, Sega licensed their games to different developers in the 80/90s and there were all sorts of gems on different hardware that Sega had no stake in, from atari to commodore to gamebay and tons of others and it never tarnished the Sega brand (other stuff did though, like Sega of Japan/Sega of America rivalry and money mismanagement) the major difference here is that Nintendo is only entrusting it to themselves and to DeNA rather than a multitude of developers. Smartphones is the hardware, instead of home computers this time around but its the same basic concept as there are a lot of different manufacturers of smartphones. Licensed Sega games were full experiences (outright ports, even) why shouldn't Nintendo follow a similar path?
 
gamerMan

gamerMan

Member
Sadly, if Nintendo kept going in the direction it was going there would be no Nintendo. Even though they make great games, Nintendo has fallen and is no longer relevant. They haven''t been giving the market what they want. This is a big 180 for the company.

Given the success of the Amiibos, I think the Nintendo IP is still strong. Even if the games are crappy, a load of people will buy them because they have Mario and Link in them. I mean it doesn't take a lot to be better than the majority of app games.

The big question is what is the pricing structure?
 
A

AniHawk

Member
The Hermit said:
I think the same as you and am very surprised about Shocking Alberto´s post too.

Its not like they are making games for PS4, they are basically going mobile on their own terms.
Click to expand...
if they were just going mobile all day every day, yeah then they would have gone fourth party like sega. but they're doing something more like what valve is doing with steam and steam machines, except more control on the dedicated hardware front, and less on the digital front. i said it in other threads, but i think these kinds of digital libraries are the gaming platforms of tomorrow. the wild west of the 70s and 80s will be replicated in the coming years as the once traditional market fades into something just for collectors and hobbyists.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
AniHawk said:
there were people who though that with the wii, nintendo was killing gaming, or at the very least, had quit gaming. and that's despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary.
Click to expand...
Well they did release the Wii with Red Steel as a launch title. I would have lost all hope too :p
 
M

Maedhros

Member
Lynd7 said:
Eh, we may have Pokemon titles through this, but no way we will get a real Pokemon game.
Click to expand...

Eh, people thought they would never seen Nintendo going mobile. A simple search on these forums will show this.

You guys just don't know. Maybe they'll. Maybe they won't.
 
C

Calamari41

41 > 38
So I have an iPad and a Galaxy phone. I'm guessing that even if everything is purchased through some kind of Nintendo app, I'm still going to have to buy two separate copies of a game, right?
 
A

AniHawk

Member
Calamari41 said:
So I have an iPad and a Galaxy phone. I'm guessing that even if everything is purchased through some kind of Nintendo app, I'm still going to have to buy two separate copies of a game, right?
Click to expand...
yes, there are several slides stressing that purchases are going to be tied to hardware.
 
R

RM8

Member
Calamari41 said:
So I have an iPad and a Galaxy phone. I'm guessing that even if everything is purchased through some kind of Nintendo app, I'm still going to have to buy two separate copies of a game, right?
Click to expand...
Yup. AFAIK, no game so far has been cross-buy between Android and iOS.
 
V

Vena

Member
AniHawk said:
yes, there are several slides stressing that purchases are going to be tied to hardware.
Click to expand...

I believe that had to do with dedicated vs. mobile specifically, not mobile per unit.

But I doubt any game will be cross-buy between two different OS anyway, no games/apps do that even now.
 
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