We know that Nintendo has a strong stance against their games making its way onto mobile devices, but have you ever wondered why? They have explained themselves a few times in the past, but just in case you missed out on the news, Nintendo’s America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, revealed in an interview with CNET as to the reason why titles such as Zelda and Mario will not be debuting on mobile devices, like iOS and Android, anytime soon, and the simple reason is for business reasons. At the same time we guess one could argue that making games for the mobile platform is a great avenue for generating revenue as well, but that is a debate for another day.
According to Fils-Aime, “When the consumer wants to play Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon, they [sic] have to purchase our hardware to do so. And that preserves our overall financial model.” In this case their hardware would be their own mobile gaming device, the Nintendo 3DS and the recently announced Nintendo 2DS. However the semi-good news is that Nintendo has since softened their stance and have considered the mobile platform, although how much of this consideration results in action remains to be seen. “We’re constantly thinking about how to leverage mobile as a marketing vehicle. How do I give little tastes of content, little experiences that then drive the consumer back to my hardware environment?” What say you? Is Nintendo making a mistake by sticking to their guns?
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