DeNA West CEO Believes Nintendo Smart Device Releases "Might Change the Way People Play Mobile Games"

I'm really interested to see how it turns out. Hopefully it turns out well.

I hope so. I'd like to see Nintendo/DeNA inject a new higher standard of expectation from mobile games. Most mobile games I've played have been just awful or play-it-once kind of things. I wish people developed better games for the platform, but a big problem is capacitive screens which in my opinion are atrocious for game playing. Resistance screens are much, much better.

Buttons don't hurt either...

Well, that's a stupid notion if I ever heard one.
Mobile "gaming" cannot change beyond the limitations imposed by hardware. Smart devices are supposed to make the manufacturers as rich as possible, so they use easily breaking parts and unique stuff so the only way to get them repaired is the grossly overpriced repair service of that very manufacturer. In addition, more and more smart devices abolish the ability to upgrade, building the battery into the phone to make it unremovable, plus the trend of SD Cards losing not only their usability, but also with self-centered pricks like Apple "inventing" an arbitrary format to grub even more cash.

The general thing many people seem to miss is that mobiles do not exist in any way for entertainment. They exist for surveillance, ripoffs, and content control (which is very clear when comparing communication quality of smart devices with old mobiles, which have unbelievably superior connection and sound quality) - gaming is a byproduct that came out of the mere possibility, not because it's actively supported.
Even Nintendo cannot change this direction, no matter how many mobile games they make. It's a lost cause the moment it's attempted.

@Kaze_Memaryu people used to say that about the Wii controls, and the power, but Nintendo still made great games like Skyward Sword, that used the controls well, and also looked amazing

Free to start..... No, there's no revolution there. You put your game out, you get your downloads and hope you can justify a big ad budget in time just for more clicks. Long live dedicated hardware.

"...all while encouraging gamers to pick up Nintendo hardware."

Does this mean ads for Wii U and 3ds? Or is it more like "if you enjoyed this game, try it in a Nintendo platform."? If be surprised if they are able to convert casual gamers to console gamers in any great numbers.

@Kaze_Memaryu Wow Kaze, tell us how you really feel. While I can't disagree w/ your comments - I'm installing Win 10 on my netbook right now, allowing Big Brother a direct conduit into my soul - I'm not exactly sure it's relevant, or accurate. I've owned an iPod Touch and 2 tablets, all of which were better hardware spec wise than a 3DS. Amazon even stopped selling the 3DS b/c of screen issues in the old model. If anything Ninteod will need to step up it's game to match the graphics and game play of some of the more popular app games as screen resolutions are 1080p on some models w/ dual core processors which I'm sure can out power a 3DS. 2DS is barely even a toy compared to today's tablets and smartphones. The non-changeable battery and repair costs are true issues, but the hardware specs are much higher than anything Ninteod has ever done in the handheld marketplace. I'm sure Poekmon Rumble World would look like utter crap at it's current resolution on a 10" iPad.

People seem to think this is a step down for Ntinedo, lowering themselves to the smart phone market, but I'm not sure those people have played a lot of app games. They aren't all Candy Crush match 3 games, some would never run on a 3DS. I admit I prefer buttons over a touch screen - what sane person doesn't? - but from a graphics and a power perspective Ntinedo will need to step it up to compete.

@rjejr - while those tablets/mobiles you mentioned are technically better than the 3DS in every conceivable way, do they produce better games than the 3DS? They don't even come close.

@Wonky_Kong No, no they didn't. People were annoyed with motion controls, because many games shoehorned them in, but executed them badly. Skyward Sword was a very divisive game on that aspect, with some people saying the motion controls were amazing, while others found them frustrating. Besides, the WiiMote was a controller, and it was up to developers how to use it, but most importantly, it was made for gaming, and it was used exactly for that. Phones are not.
Phones are mainly intended for communication, and the latest models fail at even that. But the bigger problem is that they don't support gaming at all. Even Nintendo can do what they want, but they cannot overcome the inherent limitations that come with a piece of tech that's supposed to be good at everything instead of excelling at something. What more than average games can you make on an average platform that was never intended for games to begin with?
It's like the boiling hot car hood: just because you can fry an egg on it doesn't mean you can cook a full-course meal, as well.

@Mr_Zurkon I was thinking exactly the same thing. They need to make a damn good game and hire a damn good copywriter to convert people like that. The amount of people who play free-to-play mobile games and never pay a penny is high — what makes Nintendo/DeNA think that people will part with even more money elsewhere?

@MarvinTheMartian "better games"

Better looking? Heck ya, not even a discussion. XC on new 3DS is awesome, but it pales in comparison to a good HD game.

It would be nice if Nintendo was able to create games that would decrease "hardcore" gamer's mentally of Smart device being full of simple, cheap, rip-off games with no depth. For the most part microtransaction is like a curse word to them.

@ultraraichu The problem here is that you need to look VERY hard to find top quality games and that is something many don't like doing for something that takes too long for them to do.

Hundreds of millions of people playing Nintendo mobile games sounds awfully ambitious. I hope it goes well, but would be amazed if it was that high.

Let's just hope DeNA can deliver proper apps. I like the idea, that these smartphone games are outsourced.

Typical CEO-speak.

@crimsontadpoles It's possible. Just look at Candy Crush and Angry Birds. These little apps are getting downloaded by hundreds of millions. Now just make these "free2start" or "free2play" and BOOM!

Another thing people most often forgot when talking mobile games is how limited the storage space is. Sure, mobile hardware nowadays are very capable (my Note 4 is a powerhouse that run everything I throw at it), but the better the graphics the bigger they eats the storage too. With most smartphone comes with 16GB default and the trend to remove expandable storage in newer model, thing doesn't look very good. 128GB might become an option nowadays, but if the game started to become much bigger, it'll still fill up quickly.

Even 3DS games with it's low fidelity can be very big (some 3DS releases is >3GB, the maximum catridge size is 8GB btw, while smartphone still have 4GB limit last time I checked). At least, with dedicated handheld console, we have physical games. In other words, mobile games will be always limited, despite how strong the hardware is.

Well nobody HAS played Wario Ware on a phone before so I guess he's correct.

My phone has no games on it - I use it for the internet and phone.

My 3DS has ~60+ games on it. Quality games made to be meaningful and replayable. Good content.

I guess I'm not the target demographic.

@MegaWatts The other thing too is that Nintendo is going to have to spend some serious coin to advertise their games to let those causals know they are out there. They can't be passive in the mobile space or they'll get ignored and buried by the sheer number of other free-to-play games released.

All this talk about smartphone games made me really wish the 3DS was as powerful as a mid-tier smartphone, specs and resolution wise. Imagine how great it would have been if Pokémon X/Y/OR/AS were in HD. Imagine how great it would have been if Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates gameplay looked as gorgeous as Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates cut-scenes. Guess I'll have to hope Nintendo's next generation handheld is a huge leap forward over the 3DS.

@Aurumonado I went from playing games on my phone to buying a 3DS because I was sick of free to play/endless runners.

Maybe if Nintendo was on board with this 4 years ago I'd be excited.

Over optimistic.

I want them to do well enough that it helps fund and support console games......I dont want them to do so well that they abandon the stuff I like for the profit of mobile. It's a weird situation.......like when you discover an emerging band and you have the chance to see them in tiny clubs for $10......but a year later it's at an arena and $40.

@DreamOn What you described there is they way other producers release games on mobile platforms. Nintendo is going to do the opposite, I think.
@westman98 Yeah, I would totally buy a Nintendo-Smartphone (although I would need a hardware keyboard)!
@technotaylor98: Yup, so far you could always count on Nintendo to accomplish that. It's really good to have a few things that you can rely on.
@MarvinTheMartian: Yeah that's the thing, what good is the superior Smartphone hardware, when they don't produce good games? Maybe the Nintendo-DeNA is able to change that a bit. The 3DS on the other hand is a total Nintendo classic - old and slow hardware, but great games.

I like these games just for the sake of marketing. So many people I know, whose gaming experience is primarily with Nintendo, don't even know what the gang in Kyoto is up to these days. They don't know the hardware, let alone the software. Anywhere awareness built up there has to be a good thing.

@shani I would also love to see a Nintendo-smartphone done right; it would give Apple and Google a run for their money. However, I don't see that happening, so I want the next best thing - a Nintendo handheld that is as powerful as an average smartphone. The 3DS as a platform is great, but it as a piece of hardware is woefully underpowered.

@westman98 The most I could see is something like the Firefox phone, low-powered and inexpensive and filling a specific need. It would probably sell, but not in Galaxy or iPhone numbers.

@westman98 Yeah totally! When I read the hardware specs of the (new) 3DS, I was shocked how outdated it is.

@Yorumi I guess I can't people for thinking that when it seems like 4/5 games in the app store use microtransaction in a unfair way like paying $5 worth of in-game currency for a Possibility of getting a good/rare card, creature, or costume you can't get through normal play or with the limited in-game currency the game gives you.

@Artwark Fair enough. If it's not a feature game, new release, or is talked about on a gaming website/forum, I'll be lost in the digital sea of games. Even big name publishers have a hard time getting noticed.

One example is Rhythm Thief for ios dropped from $9.99 to $0 (free) since Sega is discontinuing the game's online service next month.

Nvidia Shield TV anyone? Its more powerful than an Xbox 360 using a whopping 5-10 watts of power and has a controller and is connected to your tv with 4k 60 fps. I Would love to play a Nintendo mobile game on this mobile OS.

@Yorumi Like Capcom with the Ace Attorney series and Ghost Trick. Have up to a certain part free to play and if you want to play more, you can buy each part separate or as a cheaper bundle for all.
Yeah I prefer that method over the Pay-to-win one or the target the big spending 1% ones (certain Free-to play).

@Mr_Zurkon The original Wii surprised & turned quite a few "casuals." Someone has to take the risk. Let's see where it goes...

After Rumble World I think I'm done with free to start games. It's still not a reasonable usage of the F2P model.

@Bolt_Strike For most games Free to Start just means a free demo which happens to be built into the game directly rather than being separate; it's quite different from F2P.

I'm pretty excited to see what they've come up with

I am afraid I am destined to shuffle into my twilight years clutching my 3ds in my cane hand, playing old DS/3DS games. For home console I have my sweet PS3.

I've supported ninty since the NES. It was a decent run. It's ok, one of us has outgrown the other. I'm not sure which.

@Yorumi
My son has our old systems. I have visions, when he wants to put me in a home, of sweetening the deal by hooking them up in my room for me.

Seriously, I just enjoy handheld gaming more now. I'd give a kidney to have a handheld capable of playing GC games. I would be in freaking heaven!

This sort of talk from a CEO is all fluff. There are no new ways of playing with a smartphone. But there is a great way to lure the drones that play all the free games. Give them Super Mario Bros 3, and have them advance to a certain stage at which point the player feels superior. Then bam! Drop an Advertisement with a printable coupon for a new Wii U for 300 dollars.

Never was a fan of smartphone games, not because great games can't exist on mobile, but because I really prefer buttons. And yes, many games are now Mfi controller compatible, HOWEVER, they were designed with touch in mind and simply shoehorned the controller support in. Like KotOR. They took a game played with buttons amd ported the control scheme to touch controls, then patched in controller support. So it's very awkward playing with a controller.

The day they add competent control schemes with Mfi support is the day I plunge head first into mobile.

I'd love to have something in the Kirby "Curse" series for iOS. I need better games to play at work and I don't wanna bring another device besides my iPhone.

For me, this confirms the business idea behind this move - they will, somehow, be related to future games on dedicated consoles and increase brand awareness for future generations that play with tablets/mobiles instead of handheld. I hope that they will be able to find a way to make mobile games fun and innovative, but at the same time hope they will leave gamers with a taste for bigger experience and help expand Nintendo's market.

@Kaze_Memaryu it sounds like you may just have a thing against smartphones, in which case this isn't the place to rant about how bad they are. If you're worried about being controlled by them you shouldn't even be on the Internet because you realize they can track you through computers too right?

@Kaze_Memaryu Although I can see your point, I don't agree with you, dude. Most things aren't or weren't created for what they do. Computers were war machines, today they can do pretty much "everything". Videogames played games, now you can browse around the internet, watch videos... The thing is: Creative people find new ways to use technology, if you don't think outside the box, you're never gonna move anywhere. Wii and DS wouldn't exist if someone hadn't thought about mixing a TV controller and motion tech with gaming, or how touch screens could bring something new to the table. Phones are used for much more than communicating, they have touch screens, "motion" sensor, etc, that can be used for gaming. Think about Prof. Layton or Zelda: Phantom Hourglass; these are brilliant games that would work perfectly on phones to name a few.
The fact that mobile gaming is mostly used for making easy money out of poor games with no depth or creativity [for what smartphones can offer] doesn't mean that a interested developer can't come up with something original. Every single console is limited by it's hardware, but you can do thousands of different things within these limits if you want.

@kiigu That can be a problem for now. But think how much space does a SNES, GBA, DS or N64 game takes. And they had awesome games.

@PanurgeJr Either way, it's still worse. At least you can complete a F2P game.

@RenanKJ Your argument ends the moment you realize that PC's can be upgraded or expanded with whatever you want, meaning you can build a PC to fit any specific needs.
But with phones, you're 100% reliant on what the manufacturers offer you, and that's not much.
I'm not even talking about performance (most phones vastly outperform the 3DS), I'm talking about peripherals. A touchscreen and a motion sensor are the very definition of "casual" control schemes, and they're borderline useless for any kind of action title due to the lack of control feedback. People can argue all day that stuff like GTA and even Monster Hunter on mobiles proves otherwise, but the controls in both games are absolutely abysmal compared to the console versions. Same goes for any game that isn't a simulation or a different kind of "passive" game. So no, Phantom Hourglass wouldn't perform well on a phone, though Layton, being a point 'n click game, would (obviously enough).

@MrGuinea Which is why I'm using a fair number of programs to cover my tracks. IP rotation, cookie block, anti-trackers, you name it. Plus, I'm using multiple programs to send several random search queries at once whenever I'm forced to use Google search in order to mess up their IP profiling.

Nintendo should create streetpass games for mobile phones using wifi. Hundreds of millions make streetpass a true real life social network gaming medium.

@Nintendian The concept of "Streetpass" (not sure if that qualifies as NFC) use was available during the 90s in Docomo cellphones, they just never came over here. Before the Smartphone boom Japan was decades ahead of the world in terms of mobile phones.

@Kaze_Memaryu You realize consoles also can't be upgraded to fit your needs, right? Smartphones aren't what phones used to be, just as consoles aren't what they used to be. My point is that technology changes according to creativity usage, so my argument doesn't end because PCs are upgradable.
I never said the same games produced for consoles will be produced for phones, I actually hate playing with emulated analog stick. I believe games should be created having phones in mind, not consoles [when working for phones, obviously]. Skyward Sword would never work the same in other platforms, and it's an awesome game. If you consider depth to be games produced for consoles only, mainly with traditional controls, then there's nothing else I can tell you.
Also, Phantom Hourglass was fully played with touch, so yes - it would work perfectly on phones, how wouldn't it?
Games with depth can be produced for phones with phones in mind, not just ports of console titles - in that, I agree with you; there's no way emulating buttons will be as good as actual buttons.

I just don't see the mobile market giving a toss about Nintendo's mobile titles, Mario plastered all over the games or not. Japan is another story though, I can see them doing well over there.

I just don't see the mobile market giving a toss about Nintendo's mobile titles, Mario plastered all over the games or not. Japan is another story though, I can see them doing well over there.

@RenanKJ But the difference is that consoles aren't used for anything except gaming, so they excel at what they do. You cannot do more with phones than they allow you. That's like saying tables are great for any games just because people use them to play board games.
Now, of course, there is a certain potential that I simply cannot imagine, and I admit that it's arrogant of me to just assume nothing better can come out than what exists now when my very viewpoint isn't very willing to expect anything from mobile gaming than what I hate it for, so I apologize about that. But at the same time, I highly doubt that Nintendo has a genius idea on how to advertise consoles to an audience that mostly doesn't care about dedicated gaming at all.
Think of it like this: if the mobile games they put out work for mobile gamers, the players have what they want, and don't bother with consoles. But if the mobile games are just an appetizer for console games, it would be misleading, and console games differ greatly from what the mobile market offers, so people would feel like they were lured into getting a system they don't enjoy. Or, we'd end up with Nintendo making mobile-quality games for consoles to keep mobile gamers busy, which is a frightening thought to me.
No matter how hard I think about how this wouldn't backfire for either dedicated gamers or Nintendo themselves: someone will lose in the end. The markets are too different, the audiences are too different, and forcing two completely different communities together has a historical track record of failure.

Phones these days are more powerful than the 3ds, by a very long way, also, keep in mind games like warioware touched that used exclusively touch controls, phone games can be good