{"id":1127,"date":"2015-03-17T11:13:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2015-03-17T11:21:54","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:21:54","slug":"nintendo-to-make-smartphone-games-finally-acknowledges-theyre-in-the-videogame-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2015\/03\/17\/nintendo-to-make-smartphone-games-finally-acknowledges-theyre-in-the-videogame-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo to make smartphone games, finally acknowledges they’re in the videogame business"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an oft-repeated quote, \u201cRailroads thought they were in the railroad business. They didn\u2019t realize they were in the transportation business.\u201d In its simplest interpretation, this means that the delivery mechanism should never take precedence over the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Once Nintendo started the transition in 1983 from primarily arcade machines to their own home platforms, they almost exclusively subscribed to the idea that they were in the “railroad business,” meaning if you wanted to play Nintendo’s games, you needed a Nintendo platform. This model served Nintendo well when their platforms were at or near the top of both mind- and market-share, but not so much when their platforms struggled to gain or maintain traction.<\/p>\n

In a joint Nintendo Co., Ltd., DeNA Co., Ltd., Business and Capital Alliance Announcement<\/a> posted on Nintendo’s Japanese Website, Director and President of Nintendo Co., Ltd., Satoru Iwata, finally acknowledged that it’s time for Nintendo games to appear, without restriction<\/i>, on other platforms. Initially, it’s only going to be “smart devices,” meaning smartphones and tablets, but that almost certainly doesn’t rule out further expansion if the “experiment” proves successful.<\/p>\n

Shareholders should be happy with Nintendo finally realizing, at least partly, that they’re one of the best game developers in the world and, as such, are best served by showcasing their talents on as many mainstream platforms as possible. This is in stark contrast to Sony and Microsoft, of course, both of which are in the platform business, be it PlayStation, Xbox, or Windows. To them, platform matters because platform is what they’re best at.<\/p>\n

Despite Nintendo’s vehement protests to the contrary, the call for Nintendo to diversify beyond their own platforms clearly resonated within the company. I believe this was highlighted by Nintendo’s continued success with merchandising of their famous IPs and the positive response to their amiibo line of figures despite the relatively tepid response to their Wii U console and dwindling relevance for the otherwise popular 3DS. Even if Nintendo didn’t want to acknowledge it, their own recent game releases, which, these days, almost always features a prominent IP from their stable and is often a continuation of a previous game in a long running series, highlighted how their path to success was paved by familiarity. What I mean by this is that the primary reason to get a Wii U, for instance, was to get the type of games you knew Nintendo was going to produce. Unfortunately for Nintendo, that wasn’t enough to force the masses to purchase a Wii U, limiting the potential audience for games that people clearly wanted, and thus limiting the potential money Nintendo could make. That limit wasn’t good for Nintendo, who, like every other company on the planet, is in the business of making the most money.<\/p>\n

I think Nintendo will do quite well with this initiative, and perhaps it points to a future where Nintendo is not quite so stubborn as they’ve classically been. Who knows, this newfound flexibility in their business plan might even result in better hardware from them in the future. Even if they don’t release another console after the Wii U<\/a>, I suspect that if they continue to be open to new opportunities in the “transportation business,” they’ll continue to thrive for the decades to come, particularly if they can, without hesitation, bring their game development talents to smartwatches, virtual reality, augmented reality, or whatever else takes hold without having the distraction of being in control of their own platform, which may or may not ever gain traction, leaving the company to focus on the bigger picture and, yes, clearly what they do best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an oft-repeated quote, \u201cRailroads thought they were in the railroad business. They didn\u2019t realize they were in the transportation business.\u201d In its simplest interpretation, this means that the delivery mechanism should never take precedence over the bigger picture. Once Nintendo started the transition in 1983 from primarily arcade machines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Nintendo to make smartphone games, finally acknowledges they're in the videogame business. #nintendo #wiiu #3ds #iwata","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,11],"tags":[197,268,269,67,270,266,267,271],"class_list":["post-1127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-news","tag-3ds","tag-amiibo","tag-ip","tag-nintendo","tag-satoru-iwata","tag-smart-device","tag-smart-devices","tag-wii-u"],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo to make smartphone games, finally acknowledges they're in the videogame business - Armchair Arcade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2015\/03\/17\/nintendo-to-make-smartphone-games-finally-acknowledges-theyre-in-the-videogame-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo to make smartphone games, finally acknowledges they're in the videogame business - Armchair Arcade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s an oft-repeated quote, \u201cRailroads thought they were in the railroad business. 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Personally, I've always found classic pixel art far more beautiful than most rendered or polygonal images, and I think this particular infographic is a great illustration of that. I particularly love the personality found in the 1983\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nintendo's Mario","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Mario.png?fit=1000%2C369&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Mario.png?fit=1000%2C369&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Mario.png?fit=1000%2C369&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Mario.png?fit=1000%2C369&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2614,"url":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2015\/12\/03\/for-the-record-what-i-think-nintendos-nx-platform-will-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":1127,"position":1},"title":"For the Record: What I think Nintendo’s NX Platform will be","author":"Bill Loguidice","date":"December 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In Time's recent article, 14 Things Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima Told Us, additional vague details about Nintendo's forthcoming NX platform and what it means for Nintendo's current platforms have come to light. \u00a0Unfortunately, there's still no clear picture of exactly what the NX platform is going to be. I've discussed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nintendo Logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Nintendo_logo_current.png?fit=1200%2C296&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Nintendo_logo_current.png?fit=1200%2C296&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Nintendo_logo_current.png?fit=1200%2C296&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Nintendo_logo_current.png?fit=1200%2C296&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Nintendo_logo_current.png?fit=1200%2C296&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3803,"url":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2016\/06\/21\/editorial-nintendo-nx-already-doomed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1127,"position":2},"title":"Editorial: Is the Nintendo NX already doomed?","author":"Bill Loguidice","date":"June 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In an already infamous \"it's not about the specs\" type of manifesto, Nintendo of America President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aim\u00e9, showed that the more things change with Nintendo, the more they stay the same. \u00a0 While it's true that almost every Nintendo system post Super NES has not featured the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The new Legend of Zelda is coming to both Wii U and NX","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/zelda0004.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/zelda0004.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/zelda0004.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/zelda0004.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/zelda0004.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4539,"url":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2017\/01\/16\/outstanding-questions-nintendo-nintendo-switch\/","url_meta":{"origin":1127,"position":3},"title":"Outstanding Questions for Nintendo and the Nintendo Switch","author":"Bill Loguidice","date":"January 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've talked a lot about the Nintendo Switch in the past year or so, and most recently after the official Switch presentation (here and here). While a lot of questions were answered, several more remain outstanding. Here's a summary of the key questions that we'll hopefully see answers to prior\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Super Mario Odyssey","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ScreenClip-1.png?fit=962%2C539&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ScreenClip-1.png?fit=962%2C539&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ScreenClip-1.png?fit=962%2C539&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/ScreenClip-1.png?fit=962%2C539&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3883,"url":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2016\/07\/14\/nintendo-announces-classic-mini-nes-heres-brilliant\/","url_meta":{"origin":1127,"position":4},"title":"Nintendo announces the mini NES Classic Edition and here’s why it’s brilliant","author":"Bill Loguidice","date":"July 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Videogame hell has frozen over and something tons of Nintendo fans have been clamoring for for years has finally happened. Nintendo will be releasing a TV game version of their classic NES console called the NES Classic Edition\u00a0on November 11. It will be a miniature version of the iconic boxy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NES Classic Edition","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NES_Classic_1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1072&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NES_Classic_1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1072&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NES_Classic_1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1072&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NES_Classic_1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1072&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NES_Classic_1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1072&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3191,"url":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2016\/03\/22\/nikkei-nintendo-ceasing-wii-u-production\/","url_meta":{"origin":1127,"position":5},"title":"Nikkei: Nintendo ceasing Wii U production","author":"Bill Loguidice","date":"March 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to\u00a0NeoGAF for the heads-up on an as-of-yet unconfirmed report that Nintendo will officially be ceasing production of the Wii U by the end of this year. This follows several months of \"stock shortages\" in Japan, as well as the official end of production for select Wii U accessories. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Editorial"","block_context":{"text":"Editorial","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2016 is officially the Wii U's final year as Nintendo's primary console.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WiiU.jpg?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WiiU.jpg?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WiiU.jpg?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WiiU.jpg?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WiiU.jpg?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5dH5R-ib","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}