Nintendo wants to expand into health, learning, and other quality of life products

8:40 pm
by Kana Inagaki
Nintendo may not be releasing its popular franchise on other platforms, but Mr. Iwata says the company will license Nintendo game character rights to new partners.
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FROM Software getting Zelda characters to create a new Souls game. One can only dream...
 
I'm having a hard time visualizing what non-wearable even means. Although as some have already posted, microchip implants or nanomachines aren't technically wearable...
 
Joking aside I don't think this is so bad, when my mother suffered a nasty back injury she used Wiifit to help with her rehab (pretty low impact exercises to get her back into movement). Nintendo's been a lot of things since the late 1800s, so I doubt branching out like this would hurt them much.
 
orioto said:
If this is is it, that's good indeed. i've always been saying they should have made wii fit into a stand alone thing, and specialize in stand alone product like that separately from their consoles..

But the OP reads a little like 'ho videogames ? yeah that fad is over for us!"
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Yes this is what I'm thinking. They realized they can't appeal to their coveted blue ocean of kids and families with traditional consoles so they are lowering the barrier of entry with the 3rd pillar that has connectivity with their traditional hardware in hopes of turning them into "core" after a while.

The lack of the blue ocean is the one that's been screwing them over, not the GAF audience. GAF is just having a kneejerk reaction here because they didn't get to hear Iwata say NoA EAD studio in progress, and a greatly increased focus toward Western development.
 
It's interesting if you ask me, this is not a solution to the challenge their main business faces but expanding and diversifying their portfolio can't be bad if well implemented. The question is if the device will be interesting and cheap enough for a mass audience in the age of mobiles and tablets.
 
While it's not exactly what I want from Nintendo I don't really think I can pass any judgement, at least not until there are more details. Who knows, maybe this could be a big success for them.
 
Dr. Kitty Muffins said:
They have gone SEGA levels of inept.
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Actually it's rather smart of Nintendo, I think. The gaming market is moving in a direction that's making them more and more an anomaly. People (particularly women) love, LOVE health products, diets and stuff like that, and there's a very real obesity problem, particularly in the U.S where I live. Nintendo already has the "family-friendly" image, it doesn't take that much to go for a "female chic" image from there. And girls love Mario....they know they do.

It's the rapid timing for this that I'm more shocked by; they must be knee-deep in it by now to aim for about this time next year. To my understanding there hasn't really been a relatively affordable consumer-level health and fitness hardware product that also combines the entertainment factor of gaming (especially Nintendo games) done before, focused solely on health and fitness. If they market it right it could be an even bigger success than the Wii.

I'm not exaggerating there.
 
fates said:
Joking aside I don't think this is so bad, when my mother suffered a nasty back injury she used Wiifit to help with her rehab (pretty low impact exercises to get her back into movement). Nintendo's been a lot of things since the late 1800s, so I doubt branching out like this would hurt them much.
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In the end it's probably good there expanding into different areas, as this lessens the impact of failure across the company. The problem is you want to get into a market as it's maturing, not when everybody else seems to be getting into it.
 
This makes no sense to me at all. This is how I see it (posted in the Live Meeting thread, but it got lost during all the announcements):

I really don't get the direction Iwata supposedly sees as a success (based on what he just said at the meeting). Like, instead of solving the problems they already admitted having in the gaming area, they are investing/creating even more things they are not sure will be successful, and lets admit, the chances of this "non-wearable health accessories" or whatever being the next big thing are really small. I don't know, I will keep extremely skeptical until proven wrong.
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Its good to have variety, but not in such a risky situation. I mean, the Wii was successful as a fitness platform, but that was mainly because at that point motion controls were a fad. Thats behind us now. Wii U does not have any different aspect to it to cater to a non-gaming audience. If they are not involving their gaming systems in it, I think the situation might be even worse, because they will be going head-to-head with smartphones that are already established as a fitness companion with its countless apps. It will be an uphill battle anyway they chose to proceed imo. Its just a wrong call to head this way, as I see it at least. But hey, I am not Nintendo' president, so I guess we will see.
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Thread title should be changed.

Health is just one of the steps of the new Quality of Life platform, others include learning and daily life. ]

39l.jpg
 
I've figured it out, fitness, tied to games, non-wearable... it's gotta be:
New said:
Buddy%20Lee%201.jpg
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I think diversifying out of gaming is absolutely something they need to do, I've said it several times in recent threads. At the moment, there just isn't near enough information on this QOL initiative to know what form it will take. Good luck, have at it, hope it works.
 
jhmtehgamr20xx said:
Actually it's rather smart of Nintendo, I think. The gaming market is moving in a direction that's making them more and more an anomaly. People (particularly women) love, LOVE health products, diets and stuff like that, and there's a very real obesity problem, particularly in the U.S where I live. Nintendo already has the "family-friendly" image, it doesn't take that much to go for a "female chic" image from there. And girls love Mario....they know they do.

It's the rapid timing for this that I'm more shocked by; they must be knee-deep in it by now to aim for about this time next year. To my understanding there hasn't really been a relatively affordable consumer-level health and fitness hardware product that also combines the entertainment factor of gaming (especially Nintendo games) done before, focused solely on health and fitness. If they market it right it could be an even bigger success than the Wii.

I'm not exaggerating there.
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Yeah, Nintendo should make a fitness game or something.

Could be a big hit.
 
This is not for anyone who goes on GAF. This a secondary source of incoming for the expanded/new market for Nintendo, this is no different than Sony or Microsoft having business ventures outside their gaming market. Smart strategy if Nintendo can pull it off.
 
I think it might be kind of hilarious when we get to 2016 and Sony and Microsoft are putting out fitness/health conscious games.

Certainly an interesting approach. Not really what I was expecting, and probably not what anyone was expecting. Can't blame them for trying something different because like we saw with the Wii, it could potentially make them a nice chunk of change.

EDIT: Oh, hmm they also want to do stuff like learning new things and better qualities of daily life?
I think Nintendo just became the Arnold Schwarzenegger of getting fit.

Everyone is getting angry at Nintendo and all they want to do is make people have a better quality of life. Something in that is adorably hilarious
 
Nintendo's new strategy is.... err... ???? -> we win!

...... the only thing they need to do is preempt and beat everyone else to market with brand new ideas that they're not quite sure of, but they're coming, and....

this is bullshit, isn't it?
 
StreetsAhead said:
Thread title should be changed.

Health is just one of the steps of the new Quality of Life platform, others include learning and daily life. ]

39l.jpg
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So this is basically Touch Generations the platform. All the casual stuff is to be moved to casual platform while gaming platform will stay as a pure gaming device. This is good. Now we can get all the "game" games on our "gaming" platform.
 
erm, this isn't what i had in mind...

18-Volt said:
All the casual stuff is to be moved to casual platform while gaming platform will stay as a pure gaming device. This is good. Now we can get all the "game" games on our "gaming" platform.
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oh wow, well shoot, maybe it is what i had in mind then
 
Asd202 said:
How can you say that? We don't know how any of this will look and work.
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The blue ocean crowd may not be gone forever, they've just realized they don't want to own devices that are too focused on traditional "gaming" - like the Wii was - as that's something they are not interested in. So if that is a plan to get them back - on a different device even - and separate them from the "core" gaming system, it is rather smart.

Of course we need to know more details and how this will all go, but the idea is not bad.
 
DCharlie said:
Nintendo's new strategy is.... err... ???? -> we win!

...... the only thing they need to do is preempt and beat everyone else to market with brand new ideas that they're not quite sure of, but they're coming, and....

this is bullshit, isn't it?
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Entertaining bullshit though, I mean ignoring the fact that they are referring to the fitness tech market as "blue ocean" for a sec.....

....Sorry, I can't do this, I can't, I can't discuss this rationally, I'm trying not to cry from the tears of laughter enough to actual post something about this and I can't... sorry. :P
 
Mlatador said:
This is actually smart.
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I am actually curious about what the platform is. They've already done lots of software related to this (they recently released the Louvre app as well). The 3DS and Wii U at times are limited platforms for some of these since they still hold the "gaming" console stigma, and might open up interest in them if distanced from Mario and Zelda.
 
Oersted said:
You know, just because 2 out of 3 console manufacturers have markets outside the gaming one, doesn't mean that Nintendo can get away with it.
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J@hranimo said:
This is for non-gaming profit, so I'm not really gonna get mad at this as long as they continue making quality games.
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Pretty much this. But Nintendo shifting away from being focused solely on gaming is a sad thing. Maybe this health business will take elements from their simple games like the Wii Sports / Wii Fit stuff away from the main console. That wouldn't be such a bad thing! No gamer really wanted the vitality sensor, so if they stick that into some sort of fitness equipment / software set-up I'm all for it.
 
Asd202 said:
How can you say that? We don't know how any of this will look and work.
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I'd say anything to move beyond gaming is at least an intelligent spark. Whether or not QOL is precisely that, and then whether or not it works, are other matters entirely.

Branching out would be good for Nintendo.
 
I wonder what this completely new "non-wearable" (what a funny term, wearable was used to describe something apart from the normal non-wearable devices) thing is. Something like Kinect 2 which can see your heart rate?

AJLma said:
Well, they've got what, $11 billion dollars in the bank?

Go for it.
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Closer to 8, and they're also spending 1.2 billion on a stock buyback
 
From a business stand point this is actually pretty smart. Diversify your offerings and industries where you invest. Nintendo has gone from one industry to another their entire existence. Some they left all together and others they've stuck with. They still make cards to this day after all. This is how you get the next big thing by actually trying something new and perhaps in a different field. This is why Nintendo as a company will be fine.

From a gaming pointing of view and looking at the hardware I purchased. I've been sick for the past few days. I don't have the energy at this moment to even be as pissed off as I want to be at this moment. That's frustrating.
 
I wonder if this has anything to do with that Android tablet thing they had and were working on? It was for educational purposes with kids.

All this sounds to me is going backwards however. Devices evolved to be wearable because it's easier to use. Wouldn't a product- in this nature- become more complicated then? Sounds like a market they're trying to hit that isn't going to buy in.
 
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