UPDATE: As pointed out by 8-4's Mark MacDonald, Nintendo also had a weird add-on for Pokemon, called the Pokemon Mobile System, which had users connecting cell phones to their Game Boys.
ORIGINAL STORY: It's become a commonplace talking point to say the once sweeping market share of dedicated gaming handhelds has been hurt by smart phones. Speculation runs rampant on how this will affect both 3DS and Vita.
"Naturally, consumers will choose more affordable ones if the video games we provide do not have much more value than those available for smart phones," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in his most recent exchange with investors. "However, no causal correlations have been confirmed because we think there are consumers who acknowledge that the value of what we offer does not equal to that of those available for smart phones and that what we offer holds unique value."
Fans, analysts and investors are calling for or openly mulling Nintendo looking towards developing for other platforms, like Apple's iOS ecosystem. While Nintendo has continued to push back against such suggestions, sticking to its guns, it's not like the company hasn't been experimenting with cell phones for a while.
Let's rewind to 2006, when the United States Patent Office published a patent from Nintendo for an "electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions." Basically, a cell phone that could play games.
The filing date was November 27, 2001, two years before Nintendo would even confirm it was working on a "new Game Boy," and three years before the eventually revealed DS would hit shelves.
"[It] will enable fun and movement not seen before," said Iwata about the then-unamed DS in early 2004. "I expect it to become a third pillar, next to GameCube and Game Boy."
Eventually, however, DS took off and the Game Boy line was abandoned. No more third pillar.
At that time, games for mobile phones did exist but were hardly standard, but Nintendo's patent, which would have fallen around the same time as DS research and development was underway, shows the company was actively contemplating what role cell phones would be playing.
The theoretical device in the patent would feature "a game CPU which executes a game related process" and "a phone CPU which executes a phone related process." You know: a cell phone that places games.
According to the drawings, it wouldn't have included a touch screen--nothing out of the ordinary for the time. Instead, Nintendo had outlined a rather traditional looking cell phone with a d-pad and A/B buttons, allowing Nintendo to replicate the basic functions of its NES controller.
Another drawing includes a few games that might've been included: Super Mario DX, Metroid 2 and Golf. Considering the success Square Enix and others have seen with classic games on mobile, perhaps Nintendo was looking for an additional revenue stream.
Naturally, it's imposible to know; the idea was abandoned. Pocket Gamer published a story in October 2010, alleging Nintendo had been working alongside Nokia to prototype a Nintendo phone.
According to Pocket Gamer, Nintendo's board of directors eventually rejected the prototype.
Looking at the cell phones Nokia produced in the late 90s and early 2000s, however, it's easy to see how Nintendo's patented designs shows a riff on the accepted looks back then, albeit with a Nintendo flourish.
Nokia would eventually go on to produce the flop of a gaming mobile phone called the N-Gage, but do you remember how that thing looked? Who would want to play a video game on this monstrosity? There were a notable number of games released for N-Gage, however, like a mobile take on The Elder Scrolls. No joke!
The demand for Nintendo games other than Nintendo platforms is easy to identify. The fifth automated search result for "nintendo games" on Google, for example, is "nintendo games on ipad."
The Pokémon Company launched an iPhone app recently, where players pop bubbles as a promotional tool for the Pokemon Card Game. When the project was announced, Nintendo stock rose, based on the idea that Nintendo was considering releasing games on the iPhone or iPad. Nintendo struck that down rather quickly and the stock returned to normal.
"All Pokémon video game content will continue to appear exclusively on Nintendo platforms," said the company in a strongly worded statement. "As stated previously, Nintendo has no intention or plans of publishing its IP on non-Nintendo platforms. This is an example of a promotion by a key Nintendo partner and has no bearing on Nintendo's overall strategy."
That's pretty clear, no?
Nintendo does have a separate cell phone initiative called Nintendo Mobile, however. The company inked a deal with popular Japanese cell phone provider NTT DoCoMo in September 2005. Nintendo Mobile launched in October 2005 and it's still kicking around, providing users with ring tones, wallpapers and other information about Nintendo products for a small monthly fee. Nintendo Mobile does not exist over here.
In August, Nintendo added ringtones for Star Fox 64 3D and Kirby Mass Attack, amongst other media. There's no way to join with the iPhone in your pocket, though. Believe me, I tried. Head to the Nintendo Mobile website, load up a QR reader, and see what happens--you're locked out.
Alas.
Nintendo Mobile was never designed to deliver Nintendo games on-the-go, and Nintendo even makes that clear in on the website. One part of the FAQ brings up the idea of games being delivered through Nintendo Mobile.
"No games are scheduled for delivery," reads Nintendo's answer.
For now, it's going to stay that way, too, though it won't stop people from doing it on their own.
I've included all of the patent drawings below, but you can page through the whole thing here.
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