It was this past March that Nintendo announced its plans to broaden their horizons to the mobile market. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said, “the approach of making use of smart devices is a rational way for us to encourage even more people around the world to recognize the great value of the wonderful game software available on our dedicated systems.” Nintendo’s stated that they’ll partner with DeNA to bring Nintendo IP to i0S and Android, the first of which is coming in “early 2015,” otherwise known as “the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of march 2017.”
I for one am very excited to see how this partnership plan materializes and matures. There’s countless ways these companies can charge, distribute, and develop these games. One thing’s for certain, Nintendo IP heading to the mobile market is sure to earn an abundance of support and eventually sales.
Looking back on the huge announcement, I was excited once I heard the news. Knowing what games im usually interested in and often play, I was shocked by my optimistic attitude. I‘ve always sworn by my word that Nintendo’s actual games (hardware sometimes) are not very innovative. I’ve always thought that games only did well by Nintendo because of their nostalgia and the fan bases they’ve earned. However, seeing Nintendo expand to a part of the gaming industry filled with innovative gameplay and art styles has me perked up.
I’ve always loved mobile games (actual full paid mobile games) because they are some of the most convenient things available in the gaming world. They’re intimate and close to me. Every time I play a true mobile hit my heart warms and my memory of these games will stick with me forever. Add to this Nintendo and brands like Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, and I think we’ll have a gargantuan, money-maker in the form of a Nintendo mobile development branch.
Why is Nintendo’s expansion to the mobile market so great? They’ve already promised one game this year. Only one? You might be curious to why one of the big game development distributors can only support a tiny little mobile game this year. The answer to that question is that it won’t be tiny, or as shallow as most mobile games.
Iwata clarified that the company aims to operate every one of its smartphone games “for a significant amount of time after their releases.” This says a lot about how Nintendo plans to make things arise. I take this as a sign that Nintendo’s working hard to make sure these games are full-length masterpieces worth our time. After all, this business strategy’s aimed to get new players hooked on the Nintendo brand to boost sales for their bigger, better systems. This means games must have some level of genuine appeal and replay-ability.
This delves deeper into the matter of what these games might be. Are we looking at possible free to play junk that plagues the markets each year on the mobile front? Or will these titles be the next big hits playable on smart devices everywhere? The genres I could tell Nintendo right now to avoid are ones like endless runners, free-to-play city builders, and point-and-tap adventures. What I can tell them not to avoid are games that either turn you into the next crazed addict like Flappy Bird did. These games will keep players always wanting to get that high score and in the meantime being introduced to Nintendo characters.
Another option might be story-driven adventures that obtain the same great exploration and cliffhanger pieces that their AAA console peers have. No matter what the plan is, I can tell you the key to making good money in the mobile market: make a good game first. I can’t stress enough how many overly ambitious games on the market year after year get crushed under the bothersome weight of micro-transactions cramming ads into players’ faces. Making a good game first and only then worrying on how to make money’s the key to success in any game market and if Nintendo can produce these types of games I’m all in for jumping on the Nintendo train, full steam ahead.
This brings us to the most important point: price points. Nintendo has already released information about a service where players will be able to log onto their portable and home Nintendo consoles alongside their smart devices to “play the Nintendo experience.” My biggest question, however, is whether this will be the way we pay for our mobile titles you promised us or will that be separate. The answer’s complicated and could, in fact, mean several answers in one.
The first is that they could make us pay for this subscription service. No full Nintendo games would be able to be played for free except, you guessed it, mobile titles. The only problem with this is how app stores would know the person who’s downloading the game has a valid subscription to the service. This would require a massive partnership between Nintendo and companies like Apple and Android – a road I don’t think Nintendo wants to go down.
The second would be that the mobile games will have their own separate price points from a paid Nintendo subscription but subscribers would get a discount on these mobile titles. This again requires a deep partnership on Nintendo’s part with its mobile partners. It could happen, but I’m guessing no dice.
The third and most plausible answer is that the subscription and mobile games are utterly separate and the only use of the Nintendo service is to save games and information across all platforms holding Nintendo IP. This would demand minimal effort by Nintendo and the path I think their marketing team’s most likely to take.
No matter the case, Nintendo has a real shot to attract gamers like me who don’t find an interest in their hardware, then turn them into die hard Nintendo fanboys. Whether they take this opportunity and make use of it is completely up to them.