Nintendo GOing Forward.

[Grall]

It totally depends on their parents' income. Phones are an additional expense, so if you're stretched then it's not going to be a priority of course... That said, they're still very common. I see tons of (middle class) kids fiddling with their phones on the bus, often in pairs, playing games and whatnot it would seem.

Refusing to release software for smart devices today is simply admitting outright you're a stupid fucking idiot and shouldn't be allowed to run a major corporation. Yeah, Nintendo has their tradition of only releasing their software for their own systems. That tradition is obsolete today.

They need to get on with the times. Sales of dedicated portable gaming devices can only go down from this point forward. There isn't going to be a great resurgence.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

And how much money do these kids (their parents) spend on games for their smartphones? Sure you might have a billion devices you can sell to, but if on average there is less than 5 bucks spent on games in a 5 year timeframe that is not going to earn you that much money. Certainly not after giving 30% to google/apple.

With the exception of a couple of games I wouldn't be surprised if the is actually that little money spent on games on phones.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

http://www.statista.com/statistics/246738/average-spend-on-mobile-games/

$26 per person per annum in US. But again, these sorts of specifics and hypothetical questions aren't necessary when we have total market value figures. The mobile market is worth many billions, and is growing. Whether that's spent by kids or adults, that's your market. But the actual content of games that are generating massive revenues is kid friendly anyway, so it's not like a child friendly game would have to exclude the paying adult market. You can use the children playing for free to promote your title and get the adult spenders involved.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

According to that same site in 2012 in the us 2.1b was spent on mobile games. 7.1 on retail and 2.2 on dlc and digital games.

So Nintendo should go and compete in a market were they'll earn much less per game sold and has a market value much lower than the knew they are competing in now?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

1) Nintendo don't need to leave their current markets as long as they make money.
2) The US isn't where mobile is strongest and is where consoles are strongest. Why focus on US for a view of mobile?
3) Nintendo's console and software sales are a fairly small piece of the US pie.

The argument seems to be to ignore a multi-billion dollar segment for no actual reason. Clash of Clans makes a million dollars a day from some Finnish start-up. You think Nintendo can't compete with that and can't make games that'll appeal to mobile users? That Nintendo's game making prowess is limited to recycling the same IPs with the same core mechanics to the same few millions of Nintendo fans?

I repeat the info from my earlier link. Tencent, who don't make console games, are the largest game publisher in the world by revenue. They are larger than EA and Ubisoft and Activision and Sony. If there's no money to be made in mobile, this shouldn't be possible. This singular point of evidence is proof that there's money in mobile. What's the reason to ignore it then? The only one with a modicum of rationale is that it could devalue Nintendo's console operations, but that's easily mitigated by designing different games for different platforms.

And yes, Sony et al should be looking at mobile too. And yes, they are/have been. MS are looking to get Xbox games on mobile, but have the issue of trying to establish their own OS. Sony arsed about with PSM but couldn't get traction but have made a success of their console and are looking into streaming services. Nintendo don't need to worry about creating a platform because they make their money from first-party software sales (when their hardware isn't selling gangbusters), so they can just make and sell mobile software.

 

[BRiT]

And how much money do these kids (their parents) spend on games for their smartphones?

This past year the most numerous gift I've seen children get from others are Google-Play Gift Cards, which they then use on games. Also, coworkers say how their kids spend their allowance (work around the house doing chores for monetary stipends from the parents) on games, most of it being mobile phone or tablet games.

 

[upnorthsox]

I think most kids (> 8 years old) have smart phones these days....

No, no they don't. And parents are looking for the alternative which is targeted for the tween and under market.

 

[BRiT]

I think most kids (> 8 years old) have smart phones these days....

Around here it seems to be closer to age 10 when they start having smart phones, but just 2 years ago that age used to be closer to 13. It is indeed moving to a younger and younger spot.

 

[orangpelupa]

I can't imagine the nightmare (of cumbersome locks and limitations) if there's Nintendo portable gaming phone...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think the mobile is considered important come high-school. Every 11+ year old I know had a mobile when moving to high school, pretty much all of them bought for the purpose. The mobile helps with independence while keeping the parents in the loop. Plus you have schools that support or even mandate the use of a tablet, which is only going to increase. Apparently 7 billion mobile phones were connected last year. I think it safe to say most everyone over the age of 11/13 has a mobile save the underprivileged, for whom gaming isn't really a priority (although a mobile with F2P games can afford a far cheaper entertainment than a console or handheld, so actually it'd be a valuable addition despite being considered a luxury).

 

[wco81]

Apple paid out $10 billion to developers in 2014 for their 70% cut of App Store sales.

Games were probably a big part, if not the biggest part, of those payments.

What were Nintendo's revenues and profits last year?

 

[joker454]

Refusing to release software for smart devices today is simply admitting outright you're a stupid fucking idiot and shouldn't be allowed to run a major corporation. Yeah, Nintendo has their tradition of only releasing their software for their own systems. That tradition is obsolete today.

I wonder if maybe they are waiting for Google and Apple to release some form of official gaming controller for their respective mobile devices before making the leap. While controllers are supported on Android phones (I assume iOS as well but not sure about that platform) the support still for the most part seems variable and optional, very 3rd party in it's nature and not a priority. Maybe Nintendo would feel more comfortable if there was official support from the platform owner and hence a more guaranteed type controller layout that they could count on for their typically twitch oriented games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Controllers are supported on iOS too. There are even DS3 knockoffs available for it. But Nintendo doesn't need controllers. They'd be perfectly capable of creating good games with a touch interface. They'd just need to pull their heads out of their ancestral, obstinate arses and look at the market and learn from it. "What games are on mobile? How do they work? Well, we could create an awesome Pokemon game using a touch interface! Ooo, and we could combine it with geolocation for real world finding and capturing Pokemon via AR."

 

[BRiT]

Pokémon meets Ingress.

 

[wco81]

Maybe they're happy with getting some nominal level of profits, even if that market can't ever grow, barring some fluke like the Wii.

They were still accumulating billions in cash back in the day. They were content with Gamecube not winning the generation but still profitable.

Their execs and key people like Miyamoto may not care to see Nintendo stock rise a lot. They're all wealthy and have no need to be stinking wealthy.

 

[eastmen]

the stock market is a horrible horrible thing.

Nintendo should focus on traditional games. They can create a console that can leverage both cell phone tech and traditional console tech and make a killing.

Create a Gameboy 2 and use a slimmer gamepad from the wii u form factor and put in a real touch screen and a decent amd apu in there make a deal with a cell phone provider for lte for $10 or $15 a month plan for unlimited game downloads and messaging. Then a year or two later create home console verision with a better apu in it. Make the games compatabile on both and allow portable to be used on the console to reduce the cost of the console. Boom lots of money.

MS should be doing the same thing go to intel and get a cherry trail chip put a nice 7 inch screen on it and have it run windows 10 with access to the windows 10 store to play any of those games and let it play xbox one games at lower quality settings and boom instant money.

Sony could do the same with maybe a fork of android and create a amazon app type store where is not much of problem to add support . The only thing is I think android games have a lot of android play stuff built in so it might be a bit harder.

 

[Grall]

And how much money do these kids (their parents) spend on games for their smartphones? Sure you might have a billion devices you can sell to, but if on average there is less than 5 bucks spent on games in a 5 year timeframe that is not going to earn you that much money. Certainly not after giving 30% to google/apple.

Even for a hypothetical scenario, that's a very hypothetical scenario. I think you'll find people on average spend more than $1/year on apps.

The kicker here though is that people actually spend money on mobile games now, for 3DS mostly but some for Vita also (strange! I know! ); there's no reason to think people would stop buying these games just because they're made available for smart phones instead of, or in addition to, the 3DS.

I know this is anecdotal, but I've been skyping with a mate who has two young kids, and been there listening to when they come up to him trying to beg some app for their iPads out of him.

So yeah, kids would absolutely generate quite a bit of sales. So average price might go down, but with a market probably ten times bigger than lifetime 3DS sales just for iOS devices, not to mention Android (which we probably won't, as it's piracy heaven, lol), you could easily make up for it.

 

[eastmen]

Don't forget the 30% cut then the money lost in handheld and accessory sales. Nintendo wont make as much as you guys think by going mobile

 

[Grall]

I wonder if maybe they are waiting for Google and Apple to release some form of official gaming controller for their respective mobile devices before making the leap.

Apple has a program for gaming controllers. It's largely been a failure, because Apple doesn't understand gaming controllers. Nobody understands them like Nintendo does. This is the company that invented the modern gaming controller for crying out loud... (Gunpei Yokoi, we all owe you a debt that can never be repaid.)

They could release their own gaming controller, say a modified Wuu Pro pad, if they just wanted to. The problem isn't ability; it's a company with a lot of bright people, it's simply that they're too conservative and hesitant. What we know of their internal organization is probably a big issue in stopping any change in how they operate, each department seem to have veto power over new suggestions, making it hard to get things done, especially if they're controversial...

 

[joker454]

Apple has a program for gaming controllers. It's largely been a failure, because Apple doesn't understand gaming controllers. Nobody understands them like Nintendo does. This is the company that invented the modern gaming controller for crying out loud... (Gunpei Yokoi, we all owe you a debt that can never be repaid.) They could release their own gaming controller, say a modified Wuu Pro pad, if they just wanted to.

That would be an interesting opportunity here for Nintendo. We have a mobile market with a billion+ devices out there with no official controller from their respective makers because Google and Apple for the most part don't care about controllers at all, and the rest is a 3rd party mishmash of various controllers. This could allow Nintendo to become the defacto standard mobile controller for both platforms if they release their own. Nintendo like selling cheap hardware at profit in high volume and here's the opportunity to do so, release a controller that can work on either Android or iOS devices and totally own the mobile controller market.

The problem isn't ability; it's a company with a lot of bright people, it's simply that they're too conservative and hesitant. What we know of their internal organization is probably a big issue in stopping any change in how they operate, each department seem to have veto power over new suggestions, making it hard to get things done, especially if they're controversial...

This information is dated, but a decade or so ago a friend had worked as Nintendo of America and described to me what it was like to work there. It was so appallingly bad that he barely lasted a year. For one they had no interest in what the 'gaijin' have to say, they literally did not want to hear from them and they were just supposed to do what they were told by their Japanese bosses, period. On top of that everyone feared the boss there, no one would question him, no one would dare leave the office before he did, etc. The way the company was run was so stifling, monolithic and out of touch that it makes me wonder if a lot of that still goes on today. It would explain things I suppose.