Iwata yet again explains why Nintendo isn’t interested in bringing games to smartphones
For what feels like the umpteenth time, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has commented on why the company doesn’t feel compelled to bring its games to smart devices.
According to Iwata, selling titles for such platforms has the potential to negatively impact other segments of Nintendo’s business. Iwata also believes that revenue from such an effort “cannot be a pillar” for the company. Smartphone development simply isn’t an option unless doing so could be successful.
Iwata told Bloomberg:
“The smartphone market is probably more competitive than the console business. We have had a console business for 30 years, and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model.”
“Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied. If customers aren’t satisfied with the experience, it will decrease the value of our content.”
Iwata added that no games moved onto smartphones from game machines have continuously generated tens or hundreds of billions of yen in the long-term.
