The buck stops here
Image: Bob Riha Jr. / Nintendo of America

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has been speaking to CVG about the possibility of the company bringing its famous IPs to other platforms, and the message remains the same: Not on my watch.

Nintendo and Iwata have come under intense pressure lately to at least consider publishing the likes of Mario and Zelda on smartphone and tablet devices. Recently, industry veteran Ian Livingstone said that the Japanese firm should have its titles on every platform.

However, Iwata insists that going multiplatform would only be a short-term route to profits, and would impact the long-term health of the company:

If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit.

However, I'm really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all.

Iwata also feels that such a move would weaken the firm and remove one of its biggest advantages:

What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software - by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other.

And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world.

We're sure the demands from industry experts will continue, but it's reassuring to see Iwata stick to his guns. Do you think he's making the right move? Let us know in the comments.

[source computerandvideogames.com]