Nintendo to Jump into Mobile Gaming, Albeit Cautiously
Nintendo's planning to jump into the mobile gaming fray, only don't expect to see the Japanese studio pump out titles in an attempt to cash in on its wildly popular mascots.
Nintendo recently announced that the company would be pairing up with Japanese mobile game company DeNA to release the first Nintendo mobile game by the end of the year. Although details are still scant, the prospect has many excited. The new game will be a fresh Nintendo IP, meaning a new franchise, and the company hopes, another lovable, popular character.
"... in terms of how much the smart device business will contribute to our entire business, we announced that we will begin the service for our first gaming application by the end of the calendar year, so looking at the entire fiscal year, it will only partially contribute to our business for this period," said Nintendo president Saturo Iwata during a recent investor Q&A. "In addition, we will not release a great number of titles one after another at the beginning."
Iwata went on to elaborate that while only one mobile game is slated for release by the end of the 2015 calendar game, Nintendo plans on releasing up to five new titles by the end of the next fiscal year. Iwata emphasized that Nintendo is committed to quality, not quantity, and wants each one of the releases to become a hit.
Nintendo, once the golden pillar of video gaming, has now slipped to the likes of the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, and even gaming services such as Steam. The company is hoping to tap into the mobile market (where simple "click-based" games can earn someone like Kim Kardashian billions) to help offset the losses in the console market.
But don't expect Nintendo to try and cash in via traditional methods. Despite the potential to capitalize on the huge popularity of well-known mascots, it looks like Iwata and crew will take it slow
"We will, as a first step, secure a trend of guiding the title we will release this fiscal year to become a hit title, and then create a situation where multiple titles are hits that contribute to revenue throughout the period of the next fiscal year," Iwate noted. "As a result, I imagine the smart device business will become a pillar that supports a certain percentage of our overall revenue."
"Regarding 'how we receive money' from our consumers, while we understand that there are some methods or elements we should learn from or consider among the existing ways proven to work well on smart devices, it will not produce long-lasting results if we simply combine existing ways with Nintendo IP, even though we might make some short-term revenue," he added.
What else do we know about Nintendo's upcoming mobile game? Really not much else, except it seems as if the new franchises are in cautious, caring hands.
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