“Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata recently reiterated that Nintendo will not develop games for Apple’s iPad, iPod and iPhone, despite recent pressure from investors to jump on the iOS bandwagon,” Todd Haselton reports for BGR.
“‘This is absolutely not under consideration,’ Iwata told the Japanese news outlet Nikkei following the company’s recent 3DS press conference. ‘If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo,'” Haselton reports.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With fools like that in charge, Nintendo is nearly certain to cease to being Nintendo.
Related articles:
Mario shunning iPhones leads to growing discontent by Nintendo investors – August 11, 2011
Nintendo joins the long list of Apple victims; slashes price on 3DS toy – July 28, 2011
Apple’s App Store, iPhone 4, Angry Birds, other iOS games rack up Guinness World Records – May 13, 2011
Nielsen: Apple’s revolutionary iPad tops U.S. kids wish lists – November 23, 2010
Nintendo DS sales crashing due to popularity of Apple’s iPod touch – July 29, 2010
Does the saying “cuttting off your nose to spite your face” come to mind….
“Sayonara dude” will be the next big event for this dolt.
My mobile gaming:
Nintendo “This is absolutely not under consideration”
But let me ask, didn’t one of Steve Jobs favorite quotes say “Those that love software should make their own hardware”? And if their games came out for iOS, who would buy their consoles? After all, Nintendo as a Jobs-like genius, Shiguru Miyamoto.
Shigeru Miyamoto is why I became a software developer. His work showed to me that interactive software can be a brilliant art form, and that great software design can enrich people’s lives.
It’s time to take off the Rose Colored Glasses.
Nintendo games are brilliant art forms? Huh?
Indeed, I personally rate Nintendo games amongst the highest artistic achievements of the last 30 year (I am absolutely serious)
Yes, but their current business model of selling overpriced software is getting the shaft by the Apple app store model and their hardware is getting the shaft by people replacing dedicated mobile gaming with multi-purpose smart phones, iPod touches and iPads (just like they are replacing GPSs, iPods, point-shoot cameras, video cameras, etc.) And the phone makers are pushing the hardware envelope every other month with faster cpus, gpus and better screens, something Nintendo cannot compete with.
Yes, making the whole widget can be a strength, but Nintendo’s current business model has many other weaknesses that negate that strength, similar to Apple in the 90s. Apple was able to milk the Mac for 4 – 5 years from 1997 to 2001 while it came up with the iPod and OS X and the iTunes music store and Apple retail, which set the foundation for iOS, iPHone and iPad. I’m not sure if Nintendo has anything they can milk for 4 – 5 years while they lay the foundation for a new business model.
Totally agree. May be too late for Nintendo.
Nintendo’s position is a classic example of trying to hold on to an outdated delivery model in a very fast moving field.
IOS is the wave of the future. Access to multiple devices on the go is where the puck has been heading. Too bad Miyamoto is invested in the past. His company made some remarkable products for their time.
They could simply cut game prices by $20 and go with digital distribution.
Would Wal-mart, GameStop, etc even give them the time of day after that move? Apple and a lot of others are getting along just fine w/digital-only distribution, but Nintendo has to care about retailers, since that’s who sells their devices. They *probably* can’t do direct-to-customer only (ala old Dell), as trying the devices is a way to encourage sales.
If they’re going to have their business co-opted, they may as well do it themselves, gracefully, rather than as a last-ditch effort to stop the company from going under.
No matter what, they should explore all possibilities, rather than hold prejudices when they don’t know what could be come of embracing them.
I think Nintendo’s only hope is to:
1. make their devices much more general purpose–include a browser, texting app, email app, camera, video chat, maybe GPS option, etc.
2. Open up the dev process–Apple app store is exploding because anyone from a 14 year old to a $14 billion dollar company can write games with very little investment.
3. Digital downloads, but not just games. They need to cut deals with media companies or Amazon or Netflix so they have a full offering of music, movies, TV shows, etc. Or they need to at least make it drop-dead simple to import media on to your device.
4. And yes, they should at least experiment with a few select titles ported to iOS. They’re going to need every income stream possible to make this mammoth transition.
Nintendo could manufacture iOS accessories to work with their games. I guarantee that Nintendo would sell tens of millions of Mario games on iOS, if they were quality pieces of software. Eventually, Apple ought to buy Nintendo. The games are perfect for iOS mobile devices and fit well with Apple’s family-oriented approach.
Stick to your guns, Nintendo!
Guess we won’t have Nintendo classics on iPad.
I think that there is room for something else, that is, another device for gaming.
Sure MDN they are stupid. Maybe they are just as stupid as Apple was for not getting out of the hardware business years ago lol.
I see his point perfectly well, nintendo is an innovator, always has been and the day they become just another publisher is the day they are not the same company.
I really don’t care to play their games in a crippled state on a device never intended for gaming.
Ill go back to enjoying my 3DS now
Everyone making this argument misses a fatal logical flaw.
Apple has always made general-purpose computing devices and the software to run them. Nintendo makes gaming devices, and games to go on them. Gaming devices are nowhere near the same plane as general-purpose computing.
Or to put it another way, there’s nothing intrinsic about Nintendo’s games that requires them to run only on Nintendo’s hardware – Nintendo would make quite a handy profit selling them on iOS. Whereas Apple’s misguided foray into Mac cloning nearly helped kill the company.
“nintendo is an innovator, always has been”
Hardly. Most of the time, they think of a nice use for a technology, then make a shitty product that people buy because a) Sony and Microsoft’s offers are even less appealing b) Because they intentionally make their hardware dirt-cheap so people can impulse buy based on the “cool tech” factor, nevermind that most times the games are crap (hello, Wii)
‘Most times the games are crap’? It’s true that the Wii *is* lacking in brown-grey 3rd-person and 1st person shooters, if that was your point. As for the good games on the Wii, I really could list a huge load here and bore you, but such baseless generalisations just aren’t worth the response. If you look at the Playstation Move and Kinect, it’s pretty clear that Nintendo ARE innovators, suffering from copycats in the same way that Apple are in the mobile market.
It appears some people just don’t know their gaming (hello, Lukeskymac).
The idea of Nintendo developing games for other hardware is almost exactly the same as Apple developing products for other company’s hardware. In both cases, it would sabotage that company’s unique ability to out innovate competitors with unique experiences based on tightly integrated software and hardware. Just because the software (or games) are what makes each company great doesn’t mean they should cut out of the hardware business. If either Nintendo or Apple started doing “software only”, you will know that company is over. Companies don’t prosper by surrendering the essence of what makes them competitive and unique.
You mean like iTunes?
Or Safari?
Or QuickTime?
or Mac OSX
In case you didn’t notice, Apple makes zero profit on iTunes without selling iPods, and gives away Safari and Quicktime for Windows for free. Apple’s business strategy so completely based on selling hardware, they do not even attempt to put a price a tag on software they create for other platforms. Apple software contributes to Apple’s business only by making Apple hardware more desirable to purchase.
kayan – Apple can make money from selling songs, ebooks, etc. on Windows iTunes software without selling iPods. Don’t undermine your argument with false data.
Apple *does* make products for other companies’ hardware.
kingmel – you mean the peanuts profits that Apple makes on iTunes? How much is a peanut worth to you? Not much to me by my reckoning. Apple runs iTunes at a total loss.
What is unique about Nintendo is their software and characters. Their hardware…not unique. Not anymore.
I think they’re right. They’re basically deciding to compete at the same game, not just chase profit by attaching to Apple.
May there be room for excellence amongst many contenders. To win doesn’t mean to be alone.
How dare you people even consider this,
oh ” i-ah-ta “,
hit you for that darn comment!!!
Nintendo is as big an innovator in video games as Apple is in computers. I say this as a decades-long fan of both: it would be a very sad day if Nintendo disappeared. I wish them luck in following their ideals.
Keep in mind that a single blockbuster like Wii Fit (over 20 million sales at roughly $150 each) made as much revenue for Nintendo as the entire sales of every app on the App Store since opening.
Nintendo is sooo 20th century. They cannot prosper with their old business plan. They must somehow adapt to the new landscape, or fade away.
Well, they’re losing money and the new 3DS is a flop… so.. there you go
Im not sure the 3DS is a flop more like a slow starter.
High launch price and a poor game lineup.
The games hitting during the holiday season will hopefully kick it into gear. Its a nice handheld. I like mine but almost held off buying due to the lack of 3DS titles
I have heard this before…
Sony said it about the PSP.
Well they did go on to sell almost 70 million of them.
it took forever to do so, and there were “it’s a flop” comments from everywhere except Sony..
I have a PSP, the very first model… I actually liked it. better than the DS.
but to say it was a “success”… 8 years to sell half as many as Nintendo did in same time.
When there are only 2 handhelds in the game… and you place 2nd… and #1 sold twice as many as you.
I wished the PSP sold more, but the DS kicked it’s ass.
Just like the Xbox got beat by the PS2… only to come back and win the PS3/360 war. (face it, the Wii won…85 million or some such mind boggling number… the 360 finished 2nd (again) but above PS3)
I think nintendo is going to lose this one.
Completely irrelevant. They don’t make profit with hardware, only software. And the PSP sucked in that area.
I understand nintendos point. After all where would apple be today if they liscensed Mac OS years ago as everyone was saying they should?
On the other hand as much as my son likes his Mario characters. The Wii has been sold, the DS collects dust while the iPad is the way he enjoys games. The Mario characters? He never asks for them.
Nintendo badly needs new must have hardware or they will join many other dead gaming companies.
The big difference is, Apple makes general-purpose computing devices, and the operating system software to run them. Nintendo merely makes gaming devices, and a number of games that run on them.
It’s very easy to argue that Nintendo could make a tidy profit selling games on iOS devices, because games work on many platforms. Whereas licensing Mac OS is a completely different ballgame, which we already know bombed spectacularly for Apple.
So the argument that “Apple stayed integrated and so should Nintendo” completely ignores the vast difference in what these two companies actually do.
You are right – all I am saying is that currently Nintendos strategy is to stay integrated. I kind of understand why they would want to do that.
However the problem is – is there growth in the home/portable game console hardware only market in the future…? This is the hard question Nintendo must ask themself now.
A disruptor in a established market is never easy for an incumbent to deal with – no matter what market.
An understandable position. But knowing what you *aren’t* going to do is less than half the battle…
Ah, that’s a shame. They had a good run.
It’s probably time that Miyamoto retires anyway.
Well, I don’t care, personally. I’m not into games at all. Had a great time in the 70’s getting ****-faced in bars playing pinball, but moved on after that. There are already too many ways to waste precious time these days anyway, like writing this, for example…
“絶対ダメ”? 本当に？ばかじゃないの？
I thnk some are missing the point. Nintendo’s sales of portable gaming devices have been diminishing. With fewer devices being sold, less software is being sold. Creation of iOS games could bolster their bottom line.
Bolster their bottom line by allowing them to sell a million or five million copies of a 99cent game? Really? Nintendo makes quality games. Deep games. Revolutionary games. Ive never played a “great” game on an iOS device. I’ve had some fun, but I’ve never been in love with a game. And it’s not because Nintendo has refused to port their games over. It’s because the iphone or ipod are not “great” gaming devices. They are adequate. They are suitable for 99cent fun and that’s about it.
there are great games out there for iOS.
just cause you haven’t played them… dont bash all games.
Infinity Blade? Asshole?
The day Apple figures out how to integrate a traditional D-pad and face buttons into the iPhone/iTouch/iPad is the day Nintendo is utterly screwed.
And isn’t Apple actually working to develop a system where physical controls can rise from the touch screen? I recall there being a patent to that effect.
I think it would be awesome but i don’t see apple doing it. It just strikes me as going against their “sleek” design ideals.
that’s a ridiculous comment. you don’t think the app store has made 20 million bucks yet?
I think you meant to comment on Erick’s comment.
the 20 million sold, makes 3 billion….
but he said revenue, there is no way they have made that much.
I think Nintendo’s shareholders are more platform agnostic than profit agnostic and Nintendo needs an all of the above solution. Unless it has an xbox/playstation killer up its sleeve, it’s hardware division is growth limited.
“If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.”
If they don’t do it, they will also cease to be Nintendo.
Anyone remember Sega? Anyone? Anyone at all? Nintendo’s been counted out before and they always seem to pull a rabbit out of their a$$ to stay in the game.
And BANG! Here’s another one running into the wall!
the designs are very beautiful, very elegant. suitable for many ages, work.
One thing that Nintendo can do to maintain their business model, while making some cash now, is to release ports of older console games to IOS. Tons of older original Nintendo games out there that would make good IOS games. Then they could keep new games Nintendo hardware exclusive.
Personally on a hardware side I think Nintendo would do good if they would release a DS that had sufficient flash memory, cost around $99 and down-loadable games from a “Nintendo Store”.