I thought this article was very interesting and quite the paradigm shift for Nintendo, were it ever to come to pass:
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 cut prices 40 percent in Japan and 32 percent in the U.S., 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.
[...]
Lower-than-expected demand for the 3DS, which Iwata blamed on the lack of hit titles, prompted Nintendo on July 28 to slash its profit forecast 82 percent, driving down the shares by as much as 21 percent the following day. They fell 0.2 percent to 11,430 yen, at the 3:10 p.m. close in Osaka trading, the lowest level since August 2005.
By comparison, profits at Cupertino, California-based Apple are climbing to records, helped by downloads of games such as Rovio Mobile Oy’s “Angry Birds” on the more than 200 million iPhones, iPads and iPods sold to date. Research firm Gartner Inc. said in January it expects global sales of mobile applications to almost triple to $15.1 billion this year.
This is another prime example of a prominent, soon to be former titan-of-industry refusing to innovate in the face of a rapidly changing marketplace and technology. I'd say this rivals cable and satellite companies refusing to offer a la carte programming as their customers flee in droves to services like Netflix and Hulu. At this point, refusing to develop content for iOS or Android devices is akin to saying you don't like or want free money. There's an enormous market out there that grows exponentially by the day, and Nintendo is short sighted, hard headed, and just plain stupid to not vie for a slice of that pie. No one's even suggesting they have to exit the hardware business entirely, just bring the beloved Nintendo franchises of Mario, Metroid, and Zelda to our phones. Although as this comic shows, doing so might create something of an issue with their pricing:
Yes, $40 is a little much for a crappy handheld game, especially when developers are churning out games in droves that provide just as much entertainment value. And many of these same games boast literally millions of downloads. Sure, there are some limitations for developing games for a smartphone, but they are a surprisingly good platform for gaming. And they're not all about "matching cakes" either. Just look at Infinity Blade, which looks good enough to be on Xbox 360 or PS3, and which also reached $10 million in revenue in only 6-7 months after its launch. But Nintendo doesn't even need to limit itself to the $0.99 price point. I would happily pay $5.00 for a decent Nintendo game on my iPhone. Hell, I'd even pay $5.00 for old SNES/N64/GameCube games that I've already played and beaten multiple times (and we all know how much Nintendo loves to rehash old content). $5.00 is also more money than the grand total of $0.00 that I have been giving them for the last four years. Also, for Nintendo's love of motion gaming, the gyroscopes embedded in every smartphone provide unique opportunities for integration of Wii-like controls.
Everyone needs a phone. Not everyone needs (or even wants) a Nintendo handheld gaming device or console. Smartphone ownership is only going to increase as they continue to saturate the market and become more and more available and affordable to the average consumer (remember when getting a camera phone was fancy and expensive?). It's just doesn't make any damned sense for Nintendo not to get on board with this. They are single handedly volunteering to firewall themselves off from a significant source of revenue and millions of customers, and they will pay for their stubbornness through the continued marginalization of their company.
(via 9 to 5 Mac)
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