Nintendo reveals its plans for the Mobile Market

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced they would be entering the world of mobile and apps. Many thought this was the beginning of the end for the Japanese developer, but they have assured fans that this venture will not see them move away from the home console business. Since that announcement, Nintendo have revealed very few details about their plan to enter the mobile market, and how they plan to use their intellectual property for phone and tablet based games. Until now…

Unsurprisingly, Nintendo do not want to be seen as copying other people’s ideas, Chief Executive, Satoru Iwata stated in the recent financial review conference that “it was simple for many to earn revenue in the beginning just from creating a smart device application, the situation has been rapidly changing and now, with intense competition, generating revenue on smart devices is no longer easy […] I don’t think we can realize what we aspire to by simply imitating a past success formula.”

It appears, in typical Nintendo fashion they want to create new and innovative games while relying on their tried and tested IPs, and who can blame them. Mario is a franchise recognised worldwide and it is with this in mind Nintendo hope to create a regular stream of revenue. Iwata made it clear that business plans that have worked in Japan alone, cannot be relied upon to guarantee global success,

“My understanding of how to succeed in the Japanese market now is to find a limited number of generous consumers who are willing to spend a lot and analyze what encourages them to spend. However, if we did that, I don’t think that we would be able to entertain hundreds of millions of consumers all around the world or to produce large and long-lasting achievements.”

So this is a long term plan for Nintendo. They have seen how the mobile market has impacted the sale of consoles to the casual market, and they plan to move back into pole position for casual gamers,

“The basis of our strategy will be how we can receive a small amount of money from a wide range of consumers. However, as people in general recognize that the narrow-and-large method has been outperforming the others, we are investigating where to change in order to surpass existing hurdles.”

The plan seems like a winner for Nintendo. For years gamers have been crying out for mobile versions of Mario, Zelda and the like. With Iwata stating, “We already have some specific ideas and will announce them in due course.” it seems like it’s only a matter of time until we see Nintendo games on our phones and tablets. We just have to hope Nintendo do have some innovative and original ideas and we don’t  get cheap Candy Crush imitations with Nintendo characters.