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Hopefully a positive sign (hint?) of Nintendo rereleasing its extensive back catalogue onto new mobile and internet platforms. I really hope they pull through

Hopefully a positive sign (hint?) of Nintendo rereleasing its extensive back catalogue onto new mobile and internet platforms. I really hope they pull through on that.

chasing 11y ago
They already do: The 3DS and the Wii U. I suspect we shall not be seeing a Nintendo-approved Mario platformer on iOS or Android anytime soon. Seems like it would just undermine their hardware sales.
- louhike 11y ago
  For old games like that, it can be interesting financially. I'm not sure it matters a lot in the sales of the 3DS and the Wii U.
- tracker1 11y ago
  Games designed for a gamepad don't work well on a phone/tablet. There have been attempts at normalizing a standard input, and it simply hasn't emerged. I think nVidia Shield is probably the most successful, but I don't even have a controller for mine (it was simply the closests to a sucessor the the Nexus 7 when google went the "premium" route). I would truly love to see Nintendo move towards a more open (in terms of platform) space... I don't know how much they make on hardware, but if they released a bluetooth controller that combined with software for iOS/Android could be a boon to their back catalog sales... though sharing 30% with Apple/Google is probably what keeps them away more than anything... not sure how open Google would be to a reduced sales rate given their size, I know Apple would be unlikely.
- maxsilver 11y ago
  Yes, exactly. I don't understand the obsession people have with Nintendo releasing their games inside Apple's walled garden. Nintendo already releases really great games, on good hardware specifically designed for playing those games. It's widely available, designed well for it's intended purpose and priced very competitively (32gb iPod Touch is $250, 32gb Wii U is $300 but also usually includes a ~$50 game). They also sell a reasonable back-catalog of their older games. Their Wii U hardware is backwards compatible with nearly everything they've ever released (hardware-native compatible with Wii and GameCube, software-emulates N64, SNES, NES, GBA, DS, etc). Nintendo isn't perfect by any means. But their setup right now is pretty competitive, and their hardware has been intelligently selected and priced. Nintendo might gain a little bit of sales by jumping into iOS, but they'd loose a lot too -- way more than most people might realize.
  - belthasar 11y ago
    Small correction, the Wii U does not play GameCube discs. Other than with Smash Brothers there is no way to use the GameCube controller.
    - maxsilver 11y ago
      Right. The GameCube discs don't work in the drive. But the Wii U hardware is still compatible with GameCube games. (A Wii U can naively run GameCube games without any modifications. So if Nintendo released one on their online store, for example, you could download and run it without any emulation)
      - belthasar 11y ago
        Thanks, I didn't know that.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    I think the reason people are obsessed with this is because no matter how good Nintendo's hardware is, or how cheap it is, or how available it is, it can't compete with the smartphone I already own and carry around in my pocket all day. All else being equal, I'd rather have Nintendo games on my iPhone than pay $1 for a 3DS or a Wii U, simply because I always have my iPhone. The problem, of course, is that all else won't be equal. Business concerns aside, the games are unlikely to be very fun on a touchscreen. Every fast-paced touchscreen game I've played has been an exercise in frustration and I don't think Nintendo can overcome that. But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it, then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other mobile platform of choice).
    - chasing 11y ago
      > But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it, then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other mobile platform of choice). It's reasonable to want it, I guess, but it's not reasonable to expect Nintendo to provide an inferior experience to players that also undermines their business.
personlurking 11y ago
I hope so, too. It's funny, I've had no problems staying away from video games for 20 years but I'd jump at the opportunity to play Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3 on iOS.
- monochromatic 11y ago
  Pretty graphics are fine, but for me video games are mostly fun because of nostalgia.
- bradjohnson 11y ago
  Why not just run an emulator then? I don't think nintendo is eager to capitalize on that market and I don't really understand why there is any hype surrounding it.
  - personlurking 11y ago
    I would but I've never been able to get them to work properly. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. On the second point, there was 'recent' news about Nintendo bringing games to iOS, etc. http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/19/nintendo-games-iphone-ipad/ http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/19/nintendo-games-iphone-ipad/
martijn_himself 11y ago
I hope not. Unless they release a mandatory controller. Nintendo shouldn't accept vastly inferior (touch) controls.
- Igglyboo 11y ago
  Agreed. If I could buy an iPhone with a hardware keyboard I would be extremely happy.
- jlebrech 11y ago
  Nintendo should buy out iPega.
  - mcphage 11y ago
    I'm not really sure Nintendo needs anyone's help in how to make good controllers. They're pretty much the best of the best at it already.
jader201 11y ago
I hope by "mobile" you don't mean "mobile phones". Ugh. I know Nintendo has partnered with DeNA [1] to build mobile apps, but I hope they remain mostly disconnected, and that Nintendo remains focused on continuing to build games for handheld and home consoles. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-s-long-awaited-step-into-mobile/#.upwbur:FNmd http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-s-long-awaited-ste...
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  A graphic in that story indicates that Nintendo are moving towards a device-agnostic, subscription-based approach to game releases. Sort of Netflix, but for games. Challenges would certainly exist from a controller point of view, but if they can provide a controller standard to work across multiple devices it could work. Of course, this is mostly rumour at this point. Interested in seeing what the Nintendo NX turns out to be.
  - jader201 11y ago
    > The graphic in that story indicates that Nintendo are moving towards a device-agnostic, subscription-based approach to game releases. Where are you seeing this? I only saw a progression of the Super Mario Bros. games over the past 30 years. Nothing (that I could see) hinted at moving in this direction. If you're referring to the hand drawing the board, this is more in reference to forthcoming Mario Maker title for the Wii U: http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/i7YeZxnWhEFX6ST-sLdUBGmLoZivzNP5 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/i7YeZxnWhEFX6ST-sLdUBGm...
    - ZenoArrow 11y ago
      > Where are you seeing this? The graphic with "Jointly develop and operate a new membership service that encompasses smart devices and dedicated video game systems" in the centre.
      - jader201 11y ago
        Are we looking at the same thing? [1] I'm not seeing this at all. The only thing I see is about the history of SMB. [1] https://www.nintendo.co.uk/games/oms/mario30/index.html https://www.nintendo.co.uk/games/oms/mario30/index.html
JonnieCache 11y ago
I'm still wondering if they'll ever turn on that mythical infinite-money-firehose, the pokemon iphone MMO. In practice it wouldnt really work, the rock-paper-scissors battle system couldnt be rebalanced for online PvP, but it sure is fun to think about the chaos that would ensue if they tried it.
nitrogen 11y ago
Instead they should have expired from copyright starting at least two years ago so we could do it ourselves.

Hopefully a positive sign (hint?) of Nintendo rereleasing its extensive back catalogue onto new mobile and internet platforms. I really hope they pull through on that.

chasing 11y ago

They already do: The 3DS and the Wii U. I suspect we shall not be seeing a Nintendo-approved Mario platformer on iOS or Android anytime soon. Seems like it would just undermine their hardware sales.

louhike 11y ago
For old games like that, it can be interesting financially. I'm not sure it matters a lot in the sales of the 3DS and the Wii U.
tracker1 11y ago
Games designed for a gamepad don't work well on a phone/tablet. There have been attempts at normalizing a standard input, and it simply hasn't emerged. I think nVidia Shield is probably the most successful, but I don't even have a controller for mine (it was simply the closests to a sucessor the the Nexus 7 when google went the "premium" route). I would truly love to see Nintendo move towards a more open (in terms of platform) space... I don't know how much they make on hardware, but if they released a bluetooth controller that combined with software for iOS/Android could be a boon to their back catalog sales... though sharing 30% with Apple/Google is probably what keeps them away more than anything... not sure how open Google would be to a reduced sales rate given their size, I know Apple would be unlikely.
maxsilver 11y ago
Yes, exactly. I don't understand the obsession people have with Nintendo releasing their games inside Apple's walled garden. Nintendo already releases really great games, on good hardware specifically designed for playing those games. It's widely available, designed well for it's intended purpose and priced very competitively (32gb iPod Touch is $250, 32gb Wii U is $300 but also usually includes a ~$50 game). They also sell a reasonable back-catalog of their older games. Their Wii U hardware is backwards compatible with nearly everything they've ever released (hardware-native compatible with Wii and GameCube, software-emulates N64, SNES, NES, GBA, DS, etc). Nintendo isn't perfect by any means. But their setup right now is pretty competitive, and their hardware has been intelligently selected and priced. Nintendo might gain a little bit of sales by jumping into iOS, but they'd loose a lot too -- way more than most people might realize.
- belthasar 11y ago
  Small correction, the Wii U does not play GameCube discs. Other than with Smash Brothers there is no way to use the GameCube controller.
  - maxsilver 11y ago
    Right. The GameCube discs don't work in the drive. But the Wii U hardware is still compatible with GameCube games. (A Wii U can naively run GameCube games without any modifications. So if Nintendo released one on their online store, for example, you could download and run it without any emulation)
    - belthasar 11y ago
      Thanks, I didn't know that.
- mikeash 11y ago
  I think the reason people are obsessed with this is because no matter how good Nintendo's hardware is, or how cheap it is, or how available it is, it can't compete with the smartphone I already own and carry around in my pocket all day. All else being equal, I'd rather have Nintendo games on my iPhone than pay $1 for a 3DS or a Wii U, simply because I always have my iPhone. The problem, of course, is that all else won't be equal. Business concerns aside, the games are unlikely to be very fun on a touchscreen. Every fast-paced touchscreen game I've played has been an exercise in frustration and I don't think Nintendo can overcome that. But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it, then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other mobile platform of choice).
  - chasing 11y ago
    > But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it, then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other mobile platform of choice). It's reasonable to want it, I guess, but it's not reasonable to expect Nintendo to provide an inferior experience to players that also undermines their business.

personlurking 11y ago

I hope so, too. It's funny, I've had no problems staying away from video games for 20 years but I'd jump at the opportunity to play Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3 on iOS.

monochromatic 11y ago
Pretty graphics are fine, but for me video games are mostly fun because of nostalgia.
bradjohnson 11y ago
Why not just run an emulator then? I don't think nintendo is eager to capitalize on that market and I don't really understand why there is any hype surrounding it.
- personlurking 11y ago
  I would but I've never been able to get them to work properly. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. On the second point, there was 'recent' news about Nintendo bringing games to iOS, etc. http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/19/nintendo-games-iphone-ipad/ http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/19/nintendo-games-iphone-ipad/

martijn_himself 11y ago

I hope not. Unless they release a mandatory controller. Nintendo shouldn't accept vastly inferior (touch) controls.

Igglyboo 11y ago
Agreed. If I could buy an iPhone with a hardware keyboard I would be extremely happy.
jlebrech 11y ago
Nintendo should buy out iPega.
- mcphage 11y ago
  I'm not really sure Nintendo needs anyone's help in how to make good controllers. They're pretty much the best of the best at it already.

jader201 11y ago

I hope by "mobile" you don't mean "mobile phones". Ugh. I know Nintendo has partnered with DeNA [1] to build mobile apps, but I hope they remain mostly disconnected, and that Nintendo remains focused on continuing to build games for handheld and home consoles. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-s-long-awaited-step-into-mobile/#.upwbur:FNmd http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-s-long-awaited-ste...

ZenoArrow 11y ago
A graphic in that story indicates that Nintendo are moving towards a device-agnostic, subscription-based approach to game releases. Sort of Netflix, but for games. Challenges would certainly exist from a controller point of view, but if they can provide a controller standard to work across multiple devices it could work. Of course, this is mostly rumour at this point. Interested in seeing what the Nintendo NX turns out to be.
- jader201 11y ago
  > The graphic in that story indicates that Nintendo are moving towards a device-agnostic, subscription-based approach to game releases. Where are you seeing this? I only saw a progression of the Super Mario Bros. games over the past 30 years. Nothing (that I could see) hinted at moving in this direction. If you're referring to the hand drawing the board, this is more in reference to forthcoming Mario Maker title for the Wii U: http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/i7YeZxnWhEFX6ST-sLdUBGmLoZivzNP5 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/i7YeZxnWhEFX6ST-sLdUBGm...
  - ZenoArrow 11y ago
    > Where are you seeing this? The graphic with "Jointly develop and operate a new membership service that encompasses smart devices and dedicated video game systems" in the centre.
    - jader201 11y ago
      Are we looking at the same thing? [1] I'm not seeing this at all. The only thing I see is about the history of SMB. [1] https://www.nintendo.co.uk/games/oms/mario30/index.html https://www.nintendo.co.uk/games/oms/mario30/index.html

JonnieCache 11y ago

I'm still wondering if they'll ever turn on that mythical infinite-money-firehose, the pokemon iphone MMO. In practice it wouldnt really work, the rock-paper-scissors battle system couldnt be rebalanced for online PvP, but it sure is fun to think about the chaos that would ensue if they tried it.

nitrogen 11y ago

Instead they should have expired from copyright starting at least two years ago so we could do it ourselves.