Nintendo was founded in Kyoto, Japan in 1889 as a manufacturer of hanafuda playing cards. The company went through several small niche businesses before becoming a video game company.
The overreactions in this thread. Nintendo is on life support for a while now. Also I doubt this is going to amount to much, it's probably just testing the waters and have something to fall back on when their next console bombs even harder. Nintendo isn't synonymous with gaming, despite the blind nostalgia. Nintendo is synonymous with outdated, they refused to adapt at many occasions.
It feels kinda weird but I'm excited about this announcement.
I've played but haven't bought a Nintendo console since the N64 and I haven't bought a handheld since the DS. I miss that Nintendo flavour but their console interests rarely align with mine and when on-the-go I'd rather play lesser games then carry an additional device. The idea of playing Nintendo's take on mobile games on a non-specific device while Nintendo gets rich feels like a win-win for me.
The fuck everyone's freaking the fuck out like Nintendo gonna abandon consoles entirely
Yeah, I don't know why some people are panicking. The deal actually makes way more sense and is the best possible way they could go about getting into the mobile market; they're not changing large sections of their company to do it, it's basically just one big licensing deal to DeNA that Nintendo supervises. Iwata's had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this market and is doing it in the most restrained way possible, and explicitly said they will continue dedicated gaming systems like consoles (or devices at least similar to consoles as we know them). If this works out, everyone in this gets out happy, and if it doesn't, that shit's on DeNA.
@trafalgarlaw: I'm curious about what your definition of life support is. Almost all the posts so far have been cautiously optimistic so I'm curious where you're seeing overreactions? Other than your own post honestly.
If they're accepting that tablets and smartphones are big in gaming, I would be ok with them doing a second screen type thing with the next system. Primarily to allow Wii U stuff to be backwards compatible.
Always bet on Nintendo. They have been doing this shit for so long, and have outlived so many of their competitors, they're not going to bow out any time soon.The mobile and PC arena is too large a slice of the gaming pie for a company to outright ignore, this move will keep Nintendo relevant for years to come..
It is insane that Sony still hasn't made a PSPhone, rather than persisting with their ridiculous Vita nonsense. It is beyond insane that Microsoft still hasn't found a way to properly leverage their potential for utter dominance of PC gaming. I'd expect similar moves from both of them in the near future.
MS wants to own your living room. That has been something they willingly told people on tours of their campus back in the 90's and probably why they got in with the Xbox when it looked like Sony was well on its way of doing just that with the Playstation brand. I think the market shifted on them, so dominating PC's might in some way achieve that living room future, but I think that's why they've had such a weird time doing that.
@trafalgarlaw: I'm curious about what your definition of life support is. Almost all the posts so far have been cautiously optimistic so I'm curious where you're seeing overreactions? Other than your own post honestly.
Selling Wii U's at 50k a month? I'm talking about overreactions that videogames are supposed to be dead while they have been fine without Nintendo's involvement for a while now. The company is quickly burning through the cash reserves of theirWii-success. They had to resort to cutting down CEO salaries in order to avoid downsizing.
Jumping into mobile is very alarming, especially since Iwata time and time again stated they would never think about going mobile. Nintendo is probably doing much worse behind the scenes than we can actually see and this is their last ditch effort.
So long as the NX doesn't turn into the Wii U2, Nintendo is just moving in the right direction.
But really, this seems like the biggest speculatory shit. Nothing will come of this news for at least a year, Iwata just wanted people to know they're up for change.
Nintendo and Valve should partner up in a multi-national, PC-centric way and just make the best shit ever.
Basically I just want a next-gen Metroid Prime-ish game on the Vive/Oculus/whatever. At the very least, it'd be totally baller if Nintendo's next platform supported VR and this happened.
Or it's just a company doing what any company does: Attempt to turn a profit by delivering something for which people are willing to pay.
Either way, who cares? Nintendo is expanding to another platform. That sounds like a recipe for more potential fun for consumers to me. Why the doom and gloom?
I never do get tired of hearing about the "death-knell" of videogames. I believe that particular knell has been sounding...woof, a good EIGHT years now.
@theterriblefamiliar: Aw man, the way you quoted it makes it look like I said that. I gave up on taking the doom outlook on Nintendo after the Gamecube didn't take them down. People forget that the 3DS and amiibos are making them a good deal of money and they even lead software sales last month.
@theterriblefamiliar: Aw man, the way you quoted it makes it look like I said that. I gave up on taking the doom outlook on Nintendo after the Gamecube didn't take them down. People forget that the 3DS and amiibos are making them a good deal of money and they even lead software sales last month.
Sorry! I edited it to show the actual user who said it.
Once you go mobile, you can't ever go back! It would be interesting to see how the Big N would go about taking a pie of mobile market without it being a detriment to its handheld.
1) Major Nintendo games are still never, ever, ever going to show up on "devices" or on PC. Stop dreaming. Well, stop dreaming for now. Give it another decade and check back.
2) Honestly just put one single pokemon game out and microtransact that baby and WAM BAM THANK YOU MAM, Iwata's got a brand new bag.
Does anyone see a mobile Mario Party-like game in play here? Playing single player crappy mini games and have to wait for a couple of hours for you friends to play their turn? And you can play as Mario but if you spend some money you can play as some of your favorite characters/ outfits. Dan would have a field day with this.
I find it amusing that people think this is bad news in any way. Nintendo getting into the mobile market makes way too much sense, especially that they didn't do it before now. Nintendo isn't going to stop making games or hardware anytime soon. The WiiU is going to be around for a few more years, the NX will be talked about next E3, but probably won't come out until late 2017 at the earliest. 3DS successor when? Who knows. DeNA is going to handle the mobile side of the deal, while Nintendo allows them to use IPs.
Gaming is just in a recession, not dead, stop assuming the worst sheeple.
Let this stuff happen and then we can throw stones or proclaim games are dead if bad things turn up.
@subliminalkitteh: Also Iwata said that NO games were going to be ported from any one system to another. Games made for WiiU, 3DS, and the NX will stay on those platforms, while games made for mobile, will stay on mobile. All IPs are fair game though, so sure maybe Pokemon, Metroid, F-Zero, Mario etc. show up on mobile, don't expect them to be main titles within their series.
Nintendo games will sell gangbusters on phones. Can't believe they waited this long. I'm sure they were reluctant because they didn't want to undermine their own platform, but still. If they create original games specifically for phones people as it seems they will, people will still support Nintendo's future handhelds in order to play the games exclusive to that.
So what's a good Nintendo based term for a whale because there will be a shit ton of them. Beginning of the end of good old Nintendo. Once they see the profits from the mobile side, good luck on them caring about home consoles anymore.
I'm excited. Maybe it's because I've already fallen down the mobage hole, but I'm eager to see what Nintendo and DeNA together do with games on smart devices. Also, it is a long overdue saving grace to have someone other than Nintendo work on their "membership service." Hopefully, the Nintendo Network ID will unfuck themselves a little bit before the year is over.
In addition to the development deal, Nintendo and DeNA plan to launch a "multi-device membership service" that will allow players to play games across mobile, Windows PC, and Nintendo's own consoles. The service is slated to launch in fall 2015.
I don't know what this means but the windows PC part makes me giddy.
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