Topic: SPECULATION: What if Nintendo supported iOS or Android devices?

Microsoft has been making an OS for smartphones forever now, at least 10+ years, it wasn't a recent decision, they were one of the pioneers, get your facts straight. ...and yes, they should give up on it, their platform sucks. Fairly recently, my brother had an HTC HD2 and absolutely hated it, it came with WM6, later upgraded to WM7, but was a cumbersome experience ...then I changed it to run Android OS and he thought it was awesome, it breathed new life into his aging phone. Although his HTC HD2 did eventually die because of a faulty digitizer, he moved on to another Android smartphone.

Edit: Also, anyone calling for Nintendo to jump into the App gaming market has no idea what they're talking about in terms of business. You may as well tell them to go third party. It takes a ton of capital and the return would likely not be worth the investment. There are alternatives though, instead of spending tons of money developing for a platform they're not used to, they could just instead license their properties to other companies to make games on iOS or Android...but that wouldn't be very Nintendo would it? As much as I don't dislike Gameloft, I couldn't see me spending $5 for a Gameloft developed Mario or Zelda game for Android. I'd rather play games on the 3DS and use my phone to text and browse the internet.

@sykotek people who do understand business don't call companies "them" or "they," either. Companies are inhuman entities. "It" is the correct term.

There are alternatives though, instead of spending tons of money developing for a platform they're not used to, they could just instead license their properties to other companies to make games on iOS or Android

Nintendo should have acquired those capabilities about a year ago. Just like, literally, every single other games company out there has done.

Sony is doing it with their PlayStation Suite for Android. Why can't Nintendo do both, smartphone games AND handheld games?

And I highly doubt it wouldn't be worth it. Practically every single major developer is making smartphone games, along with all the indie developers out there. Smartphone gaming is a booming industry, and it won't die out anytime soon.

I see people crying for Nintendo games on the App Store reviews all the time. Practically anything Nintendo puts on there will sell like crazy.

I think it'd be a smart move if they put some stuff on there to entice people to buy their hardware. It'd be better advertising than what they're doing right now, lol.

I agree with pixelman, put a free level of a first party game on the App Store or Android Market and at the end of the level of course have the pop up saying, "Buy the full game on 3DS" or what have you. No harm in that.

Then people would get pissed cause Nintendo is making them buy their hardware just to play the full game.

Casual gamer: "I already have an iPod, why would I pay $169 for another game system?"

Tough luck to those people.

Amen

No, you're mistaking those who understand business with lawyers. I don't write EULAs, so I don't need to know legalese. Furthermore, these inhuman entities known as corporations have rights that most people don't, so pardon my English if I don't refer to them correctly professor.

Also, why would Nintendo have needed to acquire the know how of how to work on anything besides Nintendo products, last I checked, Nintendo is not a 3rd party and in my opinion, it jeopardizes their continued business as a whole if they listen to know-it-alls and begin developing as a 3rd party vendor. If internally, they believed it was a good idea to develop a Nintendo phone, they would've done so already. In that case, you could compare them to Sony. Nintendo, however, is primarily a games company and they make games and others make games for their platforms unlike Sony which has their hands in TVs, computers, phones, memory cards, etc, as well as video games.

Also, @tendoboy1984

@sykotek

What? You didn't finish your comment. What were you going to say to me?

What about their 3DSWare and DSiWare?

If they're going to make small apps for phones, why not just do it for 3DSWare/DSiWare instead? Even if they don't support it as much as they should, that's why it's there: To provide small apps ( Or games, rather ) in a downloadable service.

If they did it for, say, the iOS, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of them even creating a downloadable service like this?

Well Dr. Zoidburg, it comes to my attention that Nintendo can't just "give up" when they didn't even try. And I don't know how your reply to my comment was... well a reply to my comment...

And why is this? Please enlighten me how this would destroy them considering they've made pretty bad decisions lately

And please, set any stupid fanboyism aside

Well, it could keep customers from buying a handheld, since they will figure "Oh I can play Nintendo games on my iPod now? I don't need a handheld."

I don't think it's fair to compare Nintendo with Sony, regarding Sony's decision to move into the smartphone business. Sony doesn't specialize in a certain branch of electronics; rather, they sell televisions, cameras, computers, etc. If any company that sells gaming hardware should enter that market, Sony would be the one. However, Nintendo has never ventured off into unfamiliar markets (I'm disregarding their switch from Hanafuda cards to video games, as that switch marked the end of the production of their previous product). There is potential in the smartphone market, indeed; I just feel Nintendo isn't the right company to take advantage of it. This isn't a do or die situation. Nintendo won't go out of business if they don't enter into the smartphone department. As such, I would prefer it if Nintendo preserved their exclusivity and strictly remained developers of their software on their own hardware.

Here's a though for all of you: The days where a corporation can be a big business in IT, Gaming and Entertainment, and be specialist, are going away.

That's why there have been so many acquisitions and we now have so many mammoth companies. A corporation to exist requires growth. There's a point where a specialist focus can no longer provide that growth. The company either gets acquired, or disappears.

History has proven over and over again that it's not a good strategy to maintain a singular focus, so all those people saying "well, Nintendo is just a gaming company, and should stay so", must be looking forward to the day that shareholders sell over to Apple or Microsoft.

So really, if you'd like Nintendo to remain "independent," you should be bombarding Nintendo with requests for iPhone apps, and for Nintendo to acquire social gaming (Facebook etc) or App game developers and publishers.

So all these companies that just focus on games (EA, Activision, Capcom, Konami, Sega, etc.) are all doing it wrong cause that's their only business?

EA expanded into other markets via acquisition or internal development - as has Square Enix
Activision and Sega are owned by larger corporates with multiple business units. Gaming is just one arm.

Konami remains a niche player. It, and Capcom, are still small enough businesses that they can be, but even then, both of them Capcom especially) have run into financial difficulties recently.

If someone can provide me a single way Nintendo can continue to expand in its existing, traditional markets, then Nintendo can afford to concentrate on those. But I don't see Nintendo setting up shop in new geographies, I don't see Nintendo trying to capitalize on where the money currently is in gaming (Zynga is the highest value pure games company right now... Food for thought). I dont see Nintendo trying to do anything other than sell new products to the same audience as last time.

There is a theory in commerce that it's easier to retain customers than acquire new ones, but Nintendo lost a LOT of its customers to the iOS and even Kinect, now. It doesn't have that casual market any more. It needs to find new revenue streams, and as admirable as its efforts to retain existing faithful are (and it's doing a good job there), that WILL not provide the shareholders with growth.

And remember, the shareholders own the business. All Apple or Microsoft need to do is wait for shareholder confidence to drop in the face of a stagnating company and an acquisition is on the cards.

Nintendo has got to be the biggest singularly-focused entertainment company left. It's an admirable old guard in some ways, but I would much rather Nintendo wise up and realize it can't keep relying on one single business. It's simply too big for that in the modern market.

I get the feeling Nintendo is a bit hesitant to stray too far from their DS and Wii systems, especially given that they have been such huge sellers. The 3DS, for the most part, still closely resembles the idea of the DS, albeit with a cool 3D display and better visual capabilities, and now the Wii U is very similar in design to their Wii console. Unfortunately, consumers might be wanting something newer and fresher and Nintendo seem to be content playing it close to the vest. And when you've got these smartphones gaining popularity and snatching some of the pie, it's only making things more difficult.

That being said, Nintendo seems rather dug-in in their desire to keep their interests surrounding their own hardware and I just don't see them giving in anytime soon. So as much as I would like to speculate about what it might be like to play Nintendo titles on one of the smartphones, I just can't even imagine it in my mind.