Nintendo Finally Working On Games for Smartphones 86
Several readers sent word that Nintendo is finally bringing its games to mobile devices. It's partnering with Japanese game publisher DeNA to develop games for phones and tablets based on Nintendo's popular game IPs. (Existing games will not get mobile ports, however.)
DeNA first approached Nintendo about using the company's characters in mobile games back in 2010, Iwata said, and has been passionately pursuing talks on the alliance ever since. Iwata acknowledged that the transition from the Wii and DS lines to the Wii U and 3DS lines has not gone "as smoothly as we had expected," but he maintained that industry watchers predicting the death of dedicated video game consoles are being too pessimistic. Iwata tied the move to smartphones to Nintendo's historical embrace of TV gaming after decades as a physical toy and card game company during a time when TVs didn't exist. "Now that smart devices have grown to become the window for so many people to personally connect with society, it would be a waste not to use these devices."
I still don't know why ... (Score:2, Interesting)
... they don't just partner with Apple and bring out a console. And yes, it should be called the iConsole.
Re:I still don't know why ... (Score:5, Informative)
... they don't just partner with Apple and bring out a console. And yes, it should be called the iConsole.
Apple did once make a console, albeit in partnership with Bandei. It was called the Apple Pippin [wikipedia.org], and the fact you've never heard of it tells you how much that thing sucked. Besides, Nintendo and Apple both have their claims to fame in controlling hardware, and I don't think either one would be willing to concede control of it. On top of all that, their target audiences are completely different.
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It was called the Apple Pippin
FTFL List price $599, units sold 42,000. Wow, thats a train wreck by any standard!
Re:I still don't know why ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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You can now get a real arcade MVS motherboard on eBay and buy used arcade carts for a lot less than the home version of the console. Just buy an arcade RGB video converter, a JAMMA harness, arcade controls, build yourself an arcade cabinet and you're good to go. Make yourself a bartop if you don't have room for a full-size cabinet.
Popular games are easy to find and usually available for under fifty bucks. Just search for "neo geo mvs cart".
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They should have bought the rights to Amiga, and made a new Amiga MkII, with improved specs, CD32 size, and ported part of the mac api to it ( amiga was better :P~ apple ).
And if it ran old amiga games, it would have been a hit, or get more sales than macs, if people would rig up a large monitor and Kb/mouse to it instead of macos.
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To save Apple. Apple is now flailing around. They have a big sack of money from their one really successful product (iPhone) and need something new. The Watch/Tablet/Legacy PC biz is subsidized. The iPod/iTunes business? You're kidding, right? That's so aught (2000's)
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I think that was the GP's point. Why would Nintendo feel any obligation to save Apple?
the big big bags of money
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"And yes, it should be called the iConsole."
iWii surely.
Oh crap... (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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And it worked well for them, they're making a lot more money making games for mobile and online games then their current offerings. That's why they're currently restructuring to focus on that.
No they aren't being too pessimistic... (Score:1)
... computing is becoming a commodity. PC gaming is growing leaps and bounds as the bottom billions start to enter the global middle class, you have mobile phones, laptops, ipads, etc. Computing is slowly becoming a commodity device that will ultimately be everywhere. This doesn't mean total death for consoles but you don't need three different PC's (which is what consoles are, they use modern PC 3D chips). The console generations will slowly get longer and/or end because we're nearing the limit of tra
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Maybe they just figured that they can leverage their brands on ALL platforms, they'll make more $$$. After all, if a console fails, you've got a lot of money tied up in goods that you'll have to severely discount.
Plus, you need to ship a console at a specific time to make the most bang - the end-of-year holidays - and your competitors are doing the same.
And of course, they don't even have to ship physical media any more.
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... computing is becoming a commodity. PC gaming is growing leaps and bounds as the bottom billions start to enter the global middle class, you have mobile phones, laptops, ipads, etc. Computing is slowly becoming a commodity device that will ultimately be everywhere. This doesn't mean total death for consoles but you don't need three different PC's (which is what consoles are, they use modern PC 3D chips). The console generations will slowly get longer and/or end because we're nearing the limit of transistor shrinkage (aka there won't be much advantage to releasing a new console if there is no new hardware available anyway). Costs and times for shrinking transistors are escalating enormously and it's going to take some radical breakthroughs in computing to move it forward. Things that most likely is going to take decades or or perhaps a century at least.
If valve can somehow get into console land with steam machines you can expect PC gaming to ultimately take over, not that I'm saying it will but if he finds some way to crack the console market it's a possibility.
All the consoles are basically rebadged PC's with some customization, that's all they are at this point.
You're right on the underlying specs being almost exactly the same, but when you sit down to play a game on a console, you don't really want to do anything else. It's like saying that beer drinking in Germany is in jeopardy because wine is becoming more popular. They're both alcoholic drinks, but the taste is completely different.
Re:No they aren't being too pessimistic... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, Steam machines have a fundamental problem - they suck.
First off, the problem with PC gaming is piracy. Face it - 90% piracy has lead to developers targeting consoles. And it's still that high despite Steam (no-Steam hacks are plentiful, and it's why Steam has support for 3rd-party DRM still).
So the PC will remain the realm of secondary for AAA devs and the playground of indie. AAA devs will do console first, make back the big bucks, then do a half-assed port to PC as always. It might be a bit easier to take your Xbone game and run it on Windows 10, but you still have a port. Basically the devs will make their big bucks on the console, then when it tapers off, they'll release the PC version and hope to sell enough to pay for the port. Any extra is icing.
This is only broken by games that DO sell well on the PC where effective DRM is possible - i.e., games where online is a major component. So your Call of Duty or Battlefield will have day 1 ports because there is a sizable PC contingent who will buy it on day one at full price, to whom serial numbers are easily verified by servers, etc. Plus, PC users help bring it to the point of "1 billion copies sold on day one!" type PR announcements. (There are also many valid reasons for releasing on PC, since keyboard+mouse rules FPS world).
But for other games, ... not so much. Couple that with the perchant for steam sales and well, you're hoping to make it up in volume. Hell, I won't buy a PC game unless it hits $5 on sale, except in VERY rare circumstances. It's a race to the bottom, and if you want your PC game to be $70, it's got to have a big customer base who will pay full price. If not, they're going to wait for a steam sale, so better to sell on consoles for $60-70 first, release on PC 3 months later at $40, then a month later discount it to $20 for steam sale and let that be the PC release. Then 6 months later discount it to $5 and pick up the remainder as profit, hopefully.
Steam Machines? No, they're not taking over, unless you can guarantee me a $500 machine will last 10 years with zero upgrades. And seeing the initial batch, the $500 machines are... underwhelming. The good machines are $1200+, and even then you can get a console, get the "plus" (PS+, XBL Gold) services for $50 a year for 10 years, and still be ahead of a Steam Machine.
Or you can pop in a new $200 video card every couple of years and consoles will come out ahead.
Or we're gonna have to put up with an i3 with midrange discrete GPUs for the next 10 years as the "it must run on this configuration" system. Just like how we complained the PS3 and Xbox360 were holding back gaming... 4 years ago.
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Or we're gonna have to put up with an i3 with midrange discrete GPUs for the next 10 years as the "it must run on this configuration" system. Just like how we complained the PS3 and Xbox360 were holding back gaming... 4 years ago.
I take it you saw the Alienware Alpha? Maximum PC actually said it competes with current-gen consoles. And you can guess what I thought. "Not at that price ($599) with only a dual core and only 4GB of slow RAM"
The higher end versions are better, of course, but they also cost more.
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Beyond Good and Evil was a decent puzzle/TPP game. Not quite sure how it got its cult icon status, but it was decent.
The PC has no trouble getting great games (Score:2)
The PC doesn't need AAA games, it's doing plenty fine with kickstarter and indie games completely dominating the platform. Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, RimWorld, Minecraft, Broken Age, Prison Architect, Cities: Skylines, Satellite Reign, Hyper Light Drifter, Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous... the list goes on and on.
Steam machines don't need to take over either, they're just an alternative to the ever growing platform of choice for gaming. Steam hit 9+ million concurrent users this month [pcgamer.com] and there's no si
Goodbye, Nintendo. (Score:2, Interesting)
It's been over for a while now. The first Wii was promising, but I don't think they've had an idea since then. Their decisions have seemed poor and unfriendly for years. Their user agreement is one of the worst I've seen, and possibly even illegal given the child's role in interacting with it. Seems like it's time to make money by cannibalizing the brand. People comparing this to what happened to Sega are right on. If you think Sega is still intact, please try getting some Chaos Emeralds on Sonic 2 on
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I see now I should have read the links. I still predict poop.
Re:Goodbye, Nintendo. (Score:5, Informative)
That sounds more than a little harsh, and written like you haven't actually used a Nintendo system in some time. The only two consoles that see regular use in my household are the WiiU and 3DS. XBone and PS4 are just the same old same old with a graphics card upgrade. I have a PC for that stuff and I can upgrade my GPU any time I want.
Nintendo's games on the other hand are inventive and not just rehashing things like FIFA version 22 with even better grass or Call of Battlefield Hard Lines Front 12 or whatever.
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Yeah, sorry. Bad mood. I take it back.
I've got a theory... (Score:2)
After seeing all the buzz about Oculus VR, Project Morpheus, and SteamVR, Nintendo has decided they want some of that sweet, sweet VR action for themselves.
That's right, NX is actually a codename for... the Virtual Boy 2!
DUN-DUN-DUNH!!!!!
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I'm a bit disappointed. I thought they were going to build this [fanpop.com].
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Apple's moving to the "Federated Mobile Devices" concept -- taking Internet of Things, and making those "things" be things you carry around with you. I think you're less likely to see a phablet from them, and more likely to see a device that's a phone, plus an IoT hub (uses WiFi when available, Cellular data when not). Then they can sell (or license) watches, earrings, pace makers, glasses, insulin pumps, etc. that all talk via the hub, and host an application environment for people (owners and specialist
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If history is any guide, people will just call them phones. PDA is too many syllables.
Seems like they're already dead (Score:3)
industry watchers predicting the death of dedicated video game consoles are being too pessimistic.
I'm not so sure. I've had a PS4 since release, almost a year and a half now, and there's still a dearth of titles. Around the same timeframe with the PSOne, there were more titles than I had time to play, and I had far more free time in those days. It feels like there are a handful of recurring titles dominating the landscape -- the yearly installments of Battlefield, CoD, Madden, Need for Speed, Assassin's Creed, and whatever else I'm forgetting -- and precious little else. Without games, what's the point of owning a console? Streaming media maybe, but I can get that much cheaper elsewhere, and it's even built in to many TVs these days.
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I've been hearing that consoles are dead for at least a decade. "Industry watchers" are about as reliable as a broken clock. They throw out a hundred predictions and when they get one correct by chance they crow from the rooftops about it like they're bloody Kreskin.
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Agreed. Ease of use + price point + exclusive app = console sales. Nothing has changed but the vendors's ability to produce a compelling package. Someone will step up. Maybe we are looking at the wrong price point for the next big thing in consoles. I predict it's cheaper.
Re: Seems like they're already dead (Score:2)
No, that's my point. The AAA titles are repetitive crap. Unfortunately, so is most everything else.
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Mobile and PC games are just as shitty as all those Steam games you get on XBox One. Welcome to Unity.
It's about time (Score:1)
For the current generation of very young kids, their first taste of video gaming is Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Candy Crush, Temple Run and the like, played on their parents' mobile devices. They're not going to ask for a Nintendo when they're older; they'll ask for an iOS or Android device. The days of selling "kiddie" handhelds with QVGA screens and $40 games are numbered. I'm just glad Nintendo has finally decided to start rolling with the tide, rather than face being washed under, like Polaroid.
Re:It's about time (Score:5, Insightful)
God I hope not. Mobile gaming is nice and all but it's a race to the bottom. Every game has to be $0.99 or free, and IAP tied to gameplay (just 5 more moves for $0.99!). This is why there's nothing of any depth in mobile gaming. No one is going to sink millions into an RPG on an iPhone. Square has tried to charge decent prices for their games (like $15.99 for FF3) and no one buys them.
A lot of 3DS games are really good and it's because you can charge $40/pop for them and make a profit. Heck, the stupid AR games that come built into the 3DS are better games than 90% of the stuff on the iPhone.
I agree with your premise that dippy little games on Mobile with Mario will get the kids interested in Nintendo and hopefully pick up a Nintendo system but man I really hope that portable consoles and $40/game pricetags don't go away because otherwise everything is going to be a F2P mess.
People who think portable gaming on the 3DS is in any way analogous to modern Mobile games has no idea what they're talking about. Hopefully the market is large enough to carry both.
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Eh, I foresee Nintendo staying with their "exclusive" titles on their consoles/handhelds, and just getting into smartphones for silly tie-ins. "Install the COMPANION APP to click on the mini-game to give you VALUABLE ITEMS! Receive CONSTANT NOTIFICATIONS to your phone when your PokeDragon is LONELY and wants to be lot out to PEE". That kind of thing.
Some observations on my kids:
* I never subjected them to any consoles at home (OK, well, a PS2 for GT4, but they never took interest in anything beyond a
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decent price? 16 bucks for a re-re-release on a system where you can emulate the original or probably the re-release too.
what
are
you
smoking? 16 bucks for a TWENTY FIVE YEAR OLD GAME(slightly enhanced, doesn't really matter since potential buyers still view it as final fantasy III.. or vi or whatever the fuck the number is).
baldurs gate enhanced edition ios is 9.99$.
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Just because it's old doesn't mean it's worthless. They spent a lot of time and money making a 3D version of the game for the DS, which they released for $30 and sold a ton of. The iOS version has better graphics and a higher resolution and they charged $16, just over half of what the DS version cost. And you're still complaining.
Baldur's Ga
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decent price? 16 bucks for a re-re-release on a system where you can emulate the original or probably the re-release too.
It's worth noting that Square Enix has been either making or at least publishing other full-fledged RPGs, and earlier in iOS' lifetime, there was Chaos Rings [wikipedia.org], which was about as high budget as the platform could hold at the time. From what I understand, it actually was well received, but surprise surprise, no one wanted to pay that much for a game on their phone.
They're not completely insane, though, so they haven't done anything other than cheaper ports or other kinds of games since (and more recent games
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I think you vastly underestimate the market. Touchscreen games are like pretzels before dinner. You can only eat so many before you want something more substantial. And with the iOS/Android gaming market heavily F2P-P2W monetized, it feels less like gaming and more like paying rent on something. As those kids gets older they do generally get a handheld, and the numbers break means it's most likely going to be a Nintendo handheld. Most of the kids who won't bother to get a handheld now are the ones who
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The biggest problem I have with mobile games compared to a nice 3DS is the lack of a physical controller. You can only knead flat glass so long before it gets really really tiring. There are third party controller 'solutions' and even gamer-oriented Android phones and tablet, but not a standard that all game publishers support, and not enough of the install-base has said physical controllers.
The payment model for F2P and P2Win games are another issue on the mobile platforms. It gets to the point where yo
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I can't wait, (Score:4, Funny)
The Old Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
What if Nintendo made an official NES emulator app and publish every NES game ever made... add a gamepad accessory built to legacy standards, and the NES graveyard just became a NES-fan's utopia. Do this for the SNES, Gameboy, N64... whatever an iPhone can handle. Keywords: Every game ever, identical, fingertips. This wouldn't be just another App or just another game. It would be Nintendo via my phone! Can't wait!
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Maybe officially they don't, however I know there are 'ports' of arcade games and such on the iOS that use emulation at the hardware level to simulate the game on the iPhone. Having said that, if you jailbreak your iOS device you can get emulators for pretty much any console game and many arcade games through MAME. You can also pair a Wii controller to the device for more authentic console like control
It's a decent fit (Score:1)
Smartphones/tablet may be a good fit for Nintendo. People don't buy Nintendo for their console tech (though the wiimote was neat in the beginning), they buy because they make fun games and have a good history of releasing fun games in their key series (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Donkey Kong Country), as well sometimes coming up with new fun stuff.
They're more of a games company than a console company, but they're also control freaks. Hopefully this is a sign of positive change.
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Not everyone wants to play mobile games... (Score:2)
I hope they don't do like Capcom... (Score:1)
DeNA is terrible. (Score:2)
Cannibalizing their market? (Score:2)
The cheapest Nintendo game you'll currently find on either the wii or DS / 3DS at this point in time is $19.99, which many of their bigger titles selling for $49.99 or even $59.99 on the wii u
In order to make any significant headway into the mobile market, more than likely they'll need to put the price-point of the game
not only.... (Score:2)
Here's their real plan (Score:2)
Here's the real plan that Nintendo has for mobile:
First off, forget re-releases of old games on cell phones. They won't be doing a Virtual Console, selling old emulated versions of their games, and if any classic games appear they'll be "Remastered" versions specially designed for the device. There may be a marketplace that will (finally!) be tied in to your Nintendo account, and probably transfer in some way to your 3DS and other marketplaces, but it'll sell new titles featuring familiar characters and s
what nintendo should do.... (Score:1)