Nintendo and Smartphones: The Relationship That Should Happen

Nintendo, listen very closely.





There is a way to make money, increase the exposure of your product, and it can all be done at a minimal cost.





You need to listen closely, because you are very good at neglecting new technology and shun a unique ides or concept that isn’t yours. The concepts of CDs and online play were new technologies that you didn’t acknowledge and it ultimately hurt you. Listen, closely.



Time to accept the smartphones. Seriously.



The smartphones is the final frontier in the Nintendo gaming industry that has yet to be touched. The androids, IPads, IPhones, LGs, and other phones that make regular phones look extremely ancient is the final corner that you have yet to scratch to profit. You can assume that these phones are attempting to kill your business with the 3DS, but truth be told the 3DS currently:



1) Has the best-selling video game in the world with Pokemon X/Y
2) Is the best-selling console in the world
3) Has sold over 42 million copies
4) Has 85% of the handheld gaming market share.


The 3DS is not in danger, your profits are. This message to you isn’t an attempt to save the WiiU (Because it requires far more than smartphone dependency for this to happen), it’s an attempt to gain some extra money while spreading the exposure of your IPs and potentially even provide a more stable business model that doesn’t rely so much on nostalgia.


It is time for Apple, Samsung, and all the other phone-making companies to have access to your old catalog of video games from the NES to the end of the SNES, maybe even the N64. It is time for you to have the ability to purchase Super Mario Land 2 from the online store on your Galaxy, and then buy a small attachment piece resembling a controller of some sort so you can get your Mario fix on your phone during break, while waiting for someone, etc.


It is time for IPads to have the ability to have a Nintendo section in the App Store so you can download Link to the Past and then purchase a controller that connects to the USB port so you can play the game in high quality in the larger screen. If not Link to the Past then maybe one of the hundreds of Nintendo games released in the 80s and 90s.


Worldwide the amount of smartphones shipped in 2013 reached a staggering 990 million copies. I don’t even have to post another statistic to prove just how important it is for Nintendo to make any sort of effort to reach out to this audience. These smartphones are as powerful as ever and are more than capable of playing Nintendo games with no issues whatsoever. For crying out loud, Vice City can be played on phones nowadays. Surely it can crank out Mario Kart 64 with no issues whatsoever.




Some can argue that with the games being available on phones, it will diminish the sales of the Virtual Console on the WiiU and the 3DS. But the 3DS and WiiU should not be dependent on old games to be reliable and relevant, it’s the new software that runs the sales of the consoles. I assure you the Playstation Network’s list of old games is the reason why the PS3 snuck into second place in the seventh generation and wound up only 20 million sales behind the Wii. And I assure you that the Virtual Console in the Nintendo Wii itself, which was ultimately uninspiring, was not the main reason why the console sold over 100 million worldwide.


Virtual Console, still layers underneath its potential, should be icing on the cake, not the flavor of the entire cake. But this icing should be shared on multiple platforms to give Nintendo some of the necessary extra money required to cover the losses of the current generation. This icing should be shared to give fleeting franchises like Metroid and Zelda some new life and some new recognition amongst the casual crowd. It may seem unlikely, but there is a heavy percentage of the world that has yet to play Link to the Past and Super Metroid, two of among the greatest games ever made and cornerstones of their franchises.


It is very simple: sell your old games at cheap prices towards hardware with an install base of nearly a billion people. They do not have to be new games, they do not have to be totally updated. Just a bit of tweaking, maybe use some outside help with the emulating, and the possibilities are wonderful. If just 4% of smartphone users downloaded Yoshi’s Island at $5 then that would make Nintendo a total of:


Get this:


$198,000,000.


Just one game.




Nintendo, why are you not doing this?

Should Nintendo Be Purchased?

Back in the 80s, Nintendo emerged from the ashes of the Great Gaming Crash and became the biggest gaming company in the world. And it was this way for a great period of time. They had the superior technology, superior memory, and the more expensive hardware. The Super Nintendo was more expensive than the Genesis every step of the way because the hardware associated was the most advanced in the gaming market—1994’s Donkey Kong Country being the ultimate example. Competitors came and went, but Nintendo was the biggest and baddest in the business.

Today, Sony’s Playstation 3 was programmed and crafted to have a lifespan of 10 years because of its Blu-Ray technology. The Xbox 360, which has been around for 7 years this November can still crank out some of the best-looking games you’ll ever see. As for Nintendo? Well, their Nintendo Wii was loosely more advanced than hardware from the previous gaming generation while the upcoming system looks like (there is still room for pure surprise because of lack of details) it’s going to just loosely be more advanced than the PS3. In a span of 15 years, Nintendo went from being the company with the most powerful hardware into the company with by far the most dated material out there.

What’s the difference? The competition and its money pockets were far, far deeper. Want to look into the numbers? You have no choice; after all you are reading this.

Net Worth as of 2012:
Microsoft: $230 Billion
Sony: $83 Billion

Nintendo: $18.6 Billion



Nintendo is now the small market, the indie company going up against the big boys. And with this type of disadvantage, essentially Microsoft and Sony can use their expertise with computers and technology to create the advancements in the gaming medium. With heavier budgets, more help, more connections, and far more hardware experience, Sony and Microsoft don’t have to wait on anyone else when manufacturing the future. They can afford failures (Xbox, PS Move, PS Vita) and brush themselves off to try again.



Nintendo never had this luxury, and now more than ever can’t afford any type of failure. This is why the company drops products immediately when there is any sign of flailing or fledging lack of success—Virtual Boy, ECard Reader, Game Boy Color, N64 DD anyone? Nintendo relies on pure smoke and mirrors with clever marketing, different approaches to gaming, and a ridiculously successful AAA first-party lineup to remain relevant.

Gamers are a fickle bunch, on a general consensus overreacting and painfully moaning when things don’t head in our direction. Nintendo has been in the crosshairs in recent years because after generations of astounding technology being matched by outstanding quality the find themselves being matched in their own game under far superior technology. I shall admit I was one of them for a while, but the deeper you look, the more you realize:

Nintendo is small. Very small. Just imagine the films of the Florida Film Festival having to go up against the summer blockbusters. They financially don’t stand a chance, no matter how good the movies can be. So now the question is how can Nintendo possibly bring themselves back into the mix and try to create software that can match the likes of the competitors? Where and how can Nintendo financially be able to match the heavy budgets of Microsoft and Sony? Look at the last time a smaller company attempted to push the envelope and lead the way in the gaming culture:




Sega Dreamcast anyone? Look where that took Sega. Straight into Yesterday’s news.



The solution is simple (in concept, not execution), although it definitely won’t happen. But if it did, the entire world of gaming could change forever. But like I said before, don’t expect it to be done.





Somebody has to buy Nintendo.





Yes, buy.



Like what the infamous Chris Rock sketch mentioned, there’s rich and wealthy. Nintendo is rich (not as much recently), while companies like Microsoft is wealthy. What needs to happen for Nintendo to truly rise up and go back to SNES ranking, they need a major player to put forth the effort to swallow the company whole, and provide them with the money and resources needed to push forward. Let’s be honest: the 3DS was not progressive, and the WIiU while incredibly unique isn’t much of a progression either. Crippling funds does that to you—forces you to be creative with what you have.

So what if Nintendo was purchased by Apple? Don't laugh at the Apple comment, because it was rumored for a little, and the idea has sprouted many times before. What about Disney, still raking cash after buying Marvel? Or NBC/Universal? Or, to an even lesser extent, Microsoft, its second-place rival? What if the funding for a Nintendo project increased to the ridiculous proportions of Sony? Then now we have SNES-like potential which puts Nintendo technologically in the front and in charge of their destiny. The days of having to find alternate means to go up against ever-changing and ever-improving technology would diminish. We would see the franchises of Mario, Zelda, and others look just as good as the likes of Uncharted, Heavy Rain, etc.

We can see what Nintendo can pull off with minimal budget; with Mario Galaxy 2 despite being leagues underneath the norm in terms of graphical and memory capabilities emerging as one of the best games in the past 7 years. So what would happen if someone pulled a Pixar on them, and gave them an unlimited budget on their projects? I adore Pixar, but they are lucky to have a company like Disney support them-----their last three movies have a total budget of nearly $600 MILLION (Although the payoff has always been fantastic, with over 7 billion at the box office since 1995).


What would be the canvas of Nintendo when the amount of paint is limitless? And as I am saying many times, this would require one hell of a merger, and a hell of a lot of agreements from both parties for a purchase or a merger to be a pure success. Have mergers involving a $14 BILLION company occurred? Why of course it has, but they are definitely rare. And like the other mergers, this one would be a game-changer, and (unlike the other mergers) would potentially benefit every single party involved—from Nintendo to the purchaser. Wouldn’t you like to fess up the billions to purchase a company like Nintendo? Wouldn’t you like to own the rights to the creative staff in Japan and all their original IPs?

I am not saying the company is on sale, and I am definitely not saying that Nintendo would even consider selling themselves to a bigger market in hopes of expansion. What I am indeed saying is that in order for Nintendo nowadays to EVER have the ability to play catch up with the future installments of Xbox, Playstation, and whatever else might occur down the road, they need backing. But until a company has the guts, the cajones, to truly rip open their bank account and attempt this mammoth sale, Nintendo will remain the indie company that hides their limited resources behind good marketing, a great confident staff, and a reputation that they will fight to the death to maintain.


Nintendo is not for sale. But it would be an extremely incredible investment if it were. And not to mention, the gaming industry would definitely be smiling from ear to ear.




Would you buy this brand if you could pony up the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$? I sure as hell would.

Thinking Small to earn Big

The 3DS was supposed to be the talk of the town when it came out. It was supposed to be the next DS in terms of changing the face of gaming and drawing in new audiences. The PSVita was supposed to be the PSP on steroids and become an even bigger threat to Nintendo’s handheld market reign. Yet neither have really set a strong tone in the current generation. Who might be at fault? Nintendo? Sony? Not quite, but actually Apple.


Apple has changed the entire spectrum of the handheld gaming industry by showcasing that you can indeed have fun and provide excellent gaming on the go-------at extremely small prices. Angry Birds practically exploded but not because of the gameplay but much more because of the pricing. You practically get a full-length video game at a tiny fraction of the price of your typical DS/PSP game. Draw Something has become the latest smash and is connecting people throughout the nation (and has created some nice, nice art). While Apple has never once stated they are in the handheld gaming war, you bet your arse that their impact is still felt with 35 million IPhones sold and 12 million IPads sold in the last quarter.

Compare that to PSVita’s current sales figure: barely 2 million TOTAL since its release. This might be the last extremely profitable handheld generation in gaming. The DS sold 151 million copies, the GBA sold 81 million, and even the PSP managed a respectable 73 million. Do you honestly expect the 3DS and PSVita to reach these types of numbers? When phones, Apple products, Droids, and tablets are cranking out games just as consistent and at cheaper prices? Impossible, there’s no way. Even with the 3DS outpacing the DS’s first year in sales, there’s no way they could keep that up unless they virtually explode in software for the next five years.

Can this be fixed?

Yes, but it requires swallowing a few pride pills, and a total adjustment in strategy.

In order for these handhelds to compete and not get defeated by cheaper thrills, they need to actually provide some of the cheaper thrills themselves and then combine that with their usual flare of software. We are talking about your dollar/two-dollar games similar in style and addictiveness of Angry Birds. While Sony hasn’t had much of a history with your small fry addictive games, Nintendo has had a very underrated history with small unsung easy-to-learn games with their 1989-1991 Game Boy beginnings.


Why couldn’t Nintendo throw in $1 Tennis, Golf, Tetris, Tetris Attack, Faceball, Game and Watch games? Yes some are available in Virtual Console but if you really want to draw appeal away from the more expensive-yet-appealing Apple products, wouldn’t releasing Game Boy masterpieces at a buck sweeten the deal? Why couldn’t Nintendo also release $1 packages of extra levels for games already released like Star Fox, Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus, etc.? That would strengthen the longevity of the game and the system itself.



And Sony (They are such a mess nowadays), your PSN Network already has a history of independent games, drawing into the past, and app imitations. Why haven’t you pushed for more cheap products, services, and software on your Vita? Not sure if Sony knows this, but they currently have a less than 10% share in the handheld market. Not sure Sony isn’t flipping out right now.

Lastly, both must become more connected to the social networking of the internet. Sony and Nintendo needs to connect to Myspace (Stop laughing, its still sort of alive), Twitter, and especially Facebook---which is approaching a billion profiles. Pretty much everything handheld nowadays is connected to some type of social site—it’s time the 3DS and Vita start doing the same. Apple actually (mildly secretly) allows for you to chat and text people around the world without a phone contract of any sort. Why can’t Nintendo or Sony pursue this? Despite what the handheld life used to be, nowadays handheld systems need to start behaving more like the Swiss-army knife phones and behave and function in multiple ways outside of its main purpose.

Bottom Line: While the PSVita is dying slowly and the 3DS is losing slight steam, Apple can be seen making incredible profits and applications extending throughout the phones and tablets are giving dozens of indie companies life and a way to make ripples in the technological industry. Unless Sony and Nintendo change their ways and try to imitate more of the “Cheap is Good” economic style of the sort-of competitors, then it’s going to be darn-near impossible to make a profit in the future. All it took was one month and Angry Birds Space has been downloaded 10 million times. Am I saying that Nintendo and Sony should drop their $30-$40 software in favor of $5 games? No, but they should push an effort to offer more economical prices. If handhelds not even involved with gaming are offering $1 games, why couldn’t you do the same?



Draw Something for the 3DS. It is that simple a solution.

If Apple Goes off to War...

So with the eighth generation fast approaching and technology ever-changing, there has been one company that seemingly remains one step ahead of the curve. The reputation of Apple has been phenomenal, as its fanbase remains one of the strongest, harshest, and most loyal from any company this side of Disney. But with competition getting heavier and nastier and then even the consoles potentially trying to hack away at its profits (See: 3DS, XBox Live Marketplace, PS Vita) one must ponder what Apple’s response might be---if they make one.

Granted they do make a great fortune and I don’t see them dipping into red ink anytime soon, one has to ponder what their reaction will be once the next-generation systems become even more interactive, even more powerful than computers, and even more accessible to the mainstream public than ever before. One has to ponder just how Apple will react once PS Vita and their touch-screen heavy/ITouch-like games slam into the market this holiday season. I am by no means a business analyst nor am I someone who can predict the big moves by companies. But I have to ask: what were to happen if Apple jumps into the Console Wars?

What would happen if Apple were to not just attack the handheld market, but the console market as well? The console market can guarantee you profits up the ying-yang if done correctly. But can you imagine the firestorm that would rampage if Apple announces a system to fight the PS4, WiiU, and XBox 720? It was hard enough deciding between three systems that each delivered a slew of spectacular games this previous generation. What about a fourth competitor? One that would definitely stand out from the rest? I think this is what it would look like:



(Stole the concept image from this Blogger)

The name would be simple. IConsole. Hmmm, that might not work, how about the IGame? Alright, moving on. The specs would be similar to that to the competitors, but would run like a Mac. In other words, it will be a console that can run graphics like the best of them, but will feature a lot of options usually done on computers. For example: the IGame would have ITunes, IMovie, and the Safari. With ITunes in the console, you can customize musical playlists to suit your needs as you are playing certain video games. How awesome would it be to be able to play some classic rock while downing enemies in Call of Duty? The ITunes allows you to customize soundtracks for each video game you have on the hard drive—and allow you to download music from the video game to the ITunes if you like the soundtrack so much.

If you want to revive Guitar Hero, this is the way to do it. Imagine Activision releasing a one-time-only Guitar Hero video game with an ever-expanding playlist of music which you can purchase directly from the ITunes Store. Better yet, with a certain feature, you can preview music (and also play the song once) to make sure that you’ll want to download it to listen to it—and once in a while play it in Guitar Hero. Title? IGuitar Hero. Alright, these names are not working out. With the IMovie feature, you can record the video games you are playing and edit them for submission, helping the underground community of gamers that enjoy publishing videos about their gaming skills and tribulations. And of course they wouldn’t make it online without Safari, which would come automatically with every Apple console.

This is where the IGame would create a heavy blow to the industry: the software. The ITouch and IPhone have been successful because their multitude of apps and small video games carry a very small price tag. The success of Angry Birds has nothing to do with its quality but a lot to do with its price tag and pick-up-and-go attitude. It’s basically this generation’s Tetris. Tetris is an amazing game, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a game that holds very little weight, instead relying on its relentless replay value. Now, the IConsole would have less full-length video games when compared to the competitors, but will instead rely on a gajillion smaller games and applications to carry the weight and replay value of the system itself. In a tougher economy, smaller video games can definitely help the pockets without sacrificing much fun. XBox Live Marketplace is the best example of a series of games that are fun, cheap, doesn’t take much data, and still makes the XBox 360 an enjoyable system.

The IConsole will depend heavily on gamer’s investments towards smaller games. XBox Live (And on a smaller scale, the Virtual Console) worked out because of its linking to the past. Apple if they were to enter the console market and be a success must manage to please the audience with its abundance of apps—which has crossed over 300,000 for IPods, ITouches, and IPads. And then they have to find a way to get their hands on older classic games that have stood the test of time. And Apple already is very good friends with some very big companies—Disney of course being one of the big examples. Imagine Disney digging back to its vault and unveiling its entire lineup of old-school Disney games.

Imagine Apple getting their hands on old-old games made by now-defunct companies Atari, Midway, Acclaim, Tradewest, and many others. They could virtually revive at least half of the 8/16-bit library of games. I am sure that alone would be enough reason to warrant a purchase. So the question is can a system survive by having a library that mostly consists of $5-$10 games? Can this be the first successful console to rely mostly on downloadable content? It can be like a cheaper version of the PS2, many good games, and overall over 2,000 games to eventually be able to choose from.

Now of course this is what will make or break the IGame: third-party support. Now, if you remember correctly, the only modern-day debut system to thrive on first-party content was the original Nintendo. The original Playstation survived because of flawless third-party support, the original XBox relied strictly on Halo and barely survived, while Sega didn’t take off until its sophomore system came out. The IGame needs to be friendly to all third-party companies, as we’ve reached a point in which there is minimal favoritism/honor /pride amongst the smaller pieces in the gaming war. Long gone are the days in which companies were picking sides in the Genesis/SNES days. So Apple usually has been good with working with other companies, so I can definitely see XBox 360-like support for the IGame. And that spells bad news for everyone else.

Of the four competitors in the Gaming War, the IGame would look the coolest of the bunch. Its user-friendly interface, user-friendly online capabilities, and slick, sleek look would make it a hardcore’s dream come true. And with already a massive built-in audience that seems to buy anything that Apple throws at them, you can expect a great launch. Arguably, of the Big 4, the IConsole would have the best launch. Its staying power however depends on how well the competition responds and how well they can handle the system’s lasting appeal. But I am sure they can spit out a few clever apps in between major releases.


Bottom Line: This article is pretty much pointless, because creating a console to compete in the already-devastatingly-deadly console market would be nothing short of pure adrenaline risk. But can you imagine Apple jumping in and fighting the Microsoft system for some market share? It would not only be another department where Apple can make money, but it would be retaliation towards Nintendo and Sony taking on Apple in the handheld market. If Apple were to jump in, I would picture a powerful computer-like system (in terms of memory and processing power) with plenty of third-party support, thousands upon thousands of little cheaper games that can make/break Apple, and a variety of Apple products that would give the console experience a little Mac touch. While it wouldn’t happen, I can see me (and others) buying an Apple system.


I am pretty sure their launch title would be an enhanced version of Angry Birds 2.