Nintendo has revealed that it intends to release five smartphone games by 2017.
Speaking with investors after the company’s recent earnings call – in which Nintendo posted its first profit for four years – CEO Satoru Iwata outlined some of Nintendo’s plans for the immediate future.
One of those is to launch five mobile games by March 2017.
“You may think it is a small number,” said Iwata, “but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business.”
This should come as some reassurance to Nintendo fans dreading an influx of ill-fitting smartphone ports and the resulting desecration of Nintendo IP.
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“Since the game business on smart devices is already severely competitive,” Iwata explained, “even with highly popular IP, the odds of success are quite low if consumers cannot appreciate the quality of a game.”
“Also, if we were simply to port software that already has a track record on a dedicated game system, it would not match the play styles of smart devices,” he continued. “Accordingly, we are going to carefully select appropriate IP and titles for our smart device deployment.”
Nintendo hopes that its new mobile games will act as a gateway drug to its traditional console releases, which will take form in a new console codenamed the Nintendo NX.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
