Nintendo backs off on cell phone games

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According to Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...obile-ambitions-after-animal-crossing-success

President Shuntaro Furukawa proclaimed two years ago that smartphone games would be a $1 billion business with growth potential, building on his predecessor's promise that Nintendo would release two to three mobile titles each year. That spurred hopes among investors that the gaming powerhouse could carve out a substantial slice of the market. In May, however, the president adopted a markedly different tune, saying "We are not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market."
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Nintendo's dimmed enthusiasm for smartphone games is driven not only by disappointing revenues and unsatisfying monetization options but also by the limitations of the platform. The company believes its franchises shine brightest when coupled with designed-by-Nintendo controllers and it's never been fully comfortable with the touchscreen-only interface of a phone.

"New smartphone games will come, but it's very likely these will be just alibi releases to appease shareholders," said Toto.
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The Switch is on fire and Nintendo has pretty well tried everything it could on mobile. Apart from Pokémon GO, on which revenue Nintendo gets a fairly minor cut, only Fire Emblem Heroes has done anything like decent.

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I still maintain that Super Mario Run was excellent; but I'm in no way disappointed by this news. I'd rather see the focus stay on Switch.
 
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DGrayson said:
Why not design a controller for mobile and bundle it with a killer app?
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I wish someone would make a decent, affordable controller that can cradle my phone. Phone games would actually be controllable and not limited to tapping.
 
The traditionalists have won out. Nintendo would much rather throw their weight into driving people to buy their platform knowing that there is a sizable quality gap they can offer. That said, I wouldn't be stunned to see them revive their mobile efforts in the future while they recalibrate. Pokemon GO sent a very loud message that Nintendo can have a way broader reach if they expand outside the bounds of their own hardware offerings.
 
Noy surprised when switch is doing well, then they should focus their efforts on it. Same for Microsoft, once XSX do well they will back off Game PAss and PC.
 
dragalia lost is dying because it never came to switch. Also it is pretty fucking meh. FE is dying because Nintendo got fucking greedy. Not sure why they are pulling back, these sales are still decent. Since they are making money of nothing.
 
Their mobile business model is crap. Actually, mobile games suck, the market is 95% money grab grinding games that appeal to youngsters using their parents' credit card.
 
They're not wrong. All these years later, I still can't name a mobile game I've liked.

I can connect a real controller and play emulators but cell phone games are such trash.
 
Mario Run and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp are my go to mobile games. Pocket Camp alone sits at level 90. I'm just afraid that it won't be long for them to do to it what they did to Miitomo.
 
DGrayson said:
Why not design a controller for mobile and bundle it with a killer app?
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Who would carry around a phone and a controller?

I could only see it working if it had the form factor of a NES controller that could be attached to your phone and doubled as a screen protector...wait a minute. BRB off to the patent office.
 
Good, mobile games are too limiting.

I had fun with Pokemon Go for awhile, and I pop into Fire Emblem Heroes now and then, but for the most part mobile games aren't really games so much as lunch break fillers.
 
Well, this sucks. Wish more folks had held strong and kept to their boycott of Nintendo.

We were this close to getting Nintendo games on the PC. All that had to happen was the Switch had to bomb. They would have had to suck it up and go multi-platform.

Now we get to keep suffering with Nintendo's underpowered hardware and we get to keep having to wait years for their hardware to be emulated before we can play their games the way they were meant to be played. The vicious cycle continues indefinitely. Sad.
 
Going mobile means Nintendo will have to cater their games to touchscreen interface, which I find it disgusting. Good for Nintendo to stick to their platform.
 
Could you not just put a circle on the left side of the screen that works similar to a joystick and four button overlays on the right side of the screen?

I think mobile devices could work better for traditional games than most people think but I've never seen one ambitious enough to emulate a full game controller on the left and right side of the screen.
 
Victoria3D said:
Could you not just put a circle on the left side of the screen that works similar to a joystick and four button overlays on the right side of the screen?

I think mobile devices could work better for traditional games than most people think but I've never seen one ambitious enough to emulate a full game controller on the left and right side of the screen.
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Lots of phone games have had on-screen d-pads and buttons, and they all suck.

Non-tactile buttons are just the worst.
 
SLoWMoTIoN said:
Not sure why they are pulling back, these sales are still decent. Since they are making money of nothing.
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I agree. I'm not sure how much development and continued support costs for these mobile games, but I imagine they're making a pretty penny off of them anyway. FE seems to be the most popular one, and all it needs is some new artwork every month for people to spin their gachas again.
 
Victoria3D said:
Well, this sucks. Wish more folks had held strong and kept to their boycott of Nintendo.

We were this close to getting Nintendo games on the PC. All that had to happen was the Switch had to bomb. They would have had to suck it up and go multi-platform.

Now we get to keep suffering with Nintendo's underpowered hardware and we get to keep having to wait years for their hardware to be emulated before we can play their games the way they were meant to be played. The vicious cycle continues indefinitely. Sad.
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You can already play most of Nintendo's exclusives on PC though.
 
I was hoping from the beginning that although successful, it wouldn't overpower their core business.

About five years ago there was pressure from the shareholders for Nintendo to go all in on mobile. Some even believed they'd go mobile exclusive. And that was scary to me.

Not that it won't ever happen, anything is possible in this world. But I think Nintendo has a very important role in gaming as a whole, and certainly in my life as a gamer. And my thirst is not better quenched by mobile games. At least not currently.
 
Kind of disappointing to see. I never messed with any of the mobile offerings (not a fan of the platform) but it would still be nice for them to keep the diversification with that additional revenue stream.
More revenue means more opportunity to experiment and keep giving the people the weird stuff that we never knew we wanted.
 
I, for one, absolutely hate mobile games. 99.99999% of them are total and utter crap.

There's probably one decent one, but I've found that whenever I put those things on my phone, I'll play it once or twice, and then forget it's even there..!
 
the only game i ever played on a mobile phone was angry birds 1. Havent touched a game on my phone since then. I get more entertaiment from browsing gaf.
 
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SantaC2 said:
the only game i ever played on a mobile phone was angry birds 1. Havent touched a game on my phone since then. I get more entertaiment from browsing gaf.
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Try ScummVM with some old adventures like Monkey Island. But i agree that most real smarpthone games suck.
 
Anyone who says that Nintendo should go third party should look at this and think about it. Once you leave your own platform you're just another fish in the pond and you don't make the rules anymore. I thought their games actually were pretty good, but they can't compete against Clash of Clans or whatever is popular.

Kittehkraken said:
Good. More resources for the Switch.
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Eh this is a good point too. If the Switch wasn't such an amazing success, they would certainly keep up with these.
 
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Victoria3D said:
Well, this sucks. Wish more folks had held strong and kept to their boycott of Nintendo.

We were this close to getting Nintendo games on the PC. All that had to happen was the Switch had to bomb. They would have had to suck it up and go multi-platform.

Now we get to keep suffering with Nintendo's underpowered hardware and we get to keep having to wait years for their hardware to be emulated before we can play their games the way they were meant to be played. The vicious cycle continues indefinitely. Sad.
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I know what you mean there's nothing like taking the PC out on the go with you to play Zelda.
 
Mobile market is still chaotic, much more uncontrollable.
Also Honor of Kings is basically Arena of Valor for China, imagine a popular MOBA with that kind of population...
And AOV is on Switch too.
 
"A game is a series of interesting decisions." - Sid Meier

"Cell phone games will be good soon. Phones are totally capable of providing players with interesting decisions." - Me, back in 2010.

I am not a clever man.
 
"Fearing that it would harm the brand equity of its franchises, Nintendo asked its mobile development partners not to force players to spend a lot in games "
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Then how about not implementing shitty IAP to begin with?
 
People don't pay for games on mobile so developers learned to lure you in with surprise box mechanics and stroke inducing cooldown timers for you to open up your wallet.

It's disgusting, should be completely illegal and people will slowly learn that you have to pay like in any other platform.
 
Super Mario Run is actually a very good running game. If you're into that type of games.

But people are idiots and prefer burning thousands of euros in lootboxes.
 
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I liked Mario Run as well but I think it's wise to concentrate on Switch only. Nintendo are actually a small company in terms of staff and I don't think they can comfortably support two platforms at once.
 
They really didn't do it well though.
They kinda half assed it really. Not that I'm complaining I knew it wasn't going to last. Mobile games image has been destroyed over the years though I'm glad it exists so it stopped the shovelware on real gaming platforms.. yes I know there's still shovelware but nothing like there was on the Wii.
 
mcjmetroid said:
They really didn't do it well though.
They kinda half assed it really.
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I think before Mario Run their plan was to put real effort into these games, but then they were taken aback by how poorly that game fared in the marketplace. If Sensor Tower's estimate is roughly accurate (and I have no idea how they're generating those numbers), Nintendo could have developed a $40 Switch title, sold a trivial (for them) 500,000 copies, and made almost three times what it made on Mario Run.
 
diffusionx said:
Anyone who says that Nintendo should go third party should look at this and think about it. Once you leave your own platform you're just another fish in the pond and you don't make the rules anymore. I thought their games actually were pretty good, but they can't compete against Clash of Clans or whatever is popular.
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This. It's always laughable when people pitch this idea whenever Nintendo's not doing very well, like it'll suddenly solve all their problems. But being a platform means you're not nearly as beholden to market trends and fads as you are as a third party publisher. That's probably why Nintendo is giving up. Their initial approach to mobile wasn't working, and they didn't want to go all in on the practices of other games. Might as well double down on the platform that's delivering the majority of your revenue (Switch).
 
If they went all in and exploited their brand, they would have tarnished their image and potentially caused long term harm to both their primary business and IP's value.

They also found out the underlying truth of mobile games, in that quality does not sell, and what does sell is neither fun nor ever a guarantee.
 
Given that the mobile gaming market's revenues come from cynical and sleazy tactics such as micro-transactions and B. F. Skinner-esque endless grinding, I'm glad that Nintendo stuck to their guns and didn't lower themselves to that level. We don't need Mario or Zelda to become another crummy gambling app.

The money was never there. Nintendo was never going to make billions on iOS apps, but the shareholders wouldn't accept that and had to learn the hard way. Add in the fact that 30% of app revenue goes straight to Apple just seals the deal. I remember the days when Nintendo was a third-party software developer, and as much as I loved their videogames on my Atari 800XL, there's no way in hell they'd go back.

As always, Nintendo stubbornly follows their own path, and they have the financial security to stay on that path indefinitely. God Bless 'Em.
 
I've always felt that Nintendo begrudgingly walked into mobile to appease investors and undermined their own efforts in a way or the other in order to say "SEE!? IT DOESN'T WORK!". A bit like some 3rd parties on Nintendo innit ayyyy

Anyway, glad that thing is sorted. I also have given up on the idea of mobile gaming myself. I think it doesn't make any sense for me until there is a good, convenient control solution and no battery issues.
 
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