If you’re one of the hordes of iOS device users who can’t wait to see what Nintendo releases for your iPad or iPhone, you’ll be glad to know that they plan on initially releasing five games on the iOS platform. Unfortunately, it will likely take until March 2017 to reach that release goal.
Nintendo posted its financial results briefing today for the fiscal year ended March 2015. In the posting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata provided a few details about the company’s iOS-related plans with mobile gaming partner DeNA.
Iwata notes the first game will be released by “the end of this calendar year,” and long-term, the company plans to release a total of five titles for iOS by the end of the company’s next fiscal year, ending in March 2017. While the total will likely seem low to Nintendo fans, Iwata promises the company will work to maintain its well-known degree of polish and customer satisfaction for the mobile games.
Iwata also reminded fans that the games would not simply be ports of existing franchises, but would instead be tailored to a more bite-sized mobile experience.
As we confirmed on March 17, all of our IP can be considered for a smart device game. On the other hand, since the game business on smart devices is already severely competitive, 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, and the appropriate business models are different between the two, so we would not anticipate a great result. If we did not aim to achieve a significant result, it would be meaningless for us to do it at all. Accordingly, we are going to carefully select appropriate IP and titles for our smart device deployment.
Iwata closes by saying the company hopes to”expand this business,” (mobile games), to more markets so more fans will have the opportunity to experience Nintendo’s mobile efforts. “We are aiming to make this one of the pillars of Nintendo’s revenue structure,” Iwata said.
(Via MacRumors)
