Investors pushing Nintendo to support Apple's iPhone, iPad - Page 2

Nah, it's called the iPod touch. Apple sells two of them for every three iPhones.

The demographic for the iPod touch is considerably younger, the 13-24 age bracket whereas the iPhone is the lucrative 25-49 age bracket. Various surveys have shown that iPod touch users download far more apps (and more games) than iPhone owners. As Steve Jobs mentioned, the iPod touch is training wheels for the iPhone.

Holiday quarter sales of the iPod product line are about twice the sales as the other three non-holiday quarters. Apple claims the iPod touch is now the top selling device in the iPod family. This is basically the stocking stuffer parents are giving to their kids each year.

Why do people believe gaming on the iPhone require no buttons? It would be no trick to a fold out button controller for the iPhone or iPod touch.

I am not sure that is true. I spend more time playing games on my phone then I did with my PSP or gameboy, gameboy advanced, or DS. Do you have some credible study that supports your position?

Nintendo is losing money after declines in yoy profits for four straight quarters. Their forecasting seems to predict a loss for this quarter too. There is no profit in Nintendo right now.

dead
nintendoi is dead
my sons want th e iPads no matter what

7 and 10 yrs old
nintendio is dead

apple is rocking

"One fund manager believes Apple should abandon its strategy of only releasing titles for its own hardware, and support other platforms, including the iPhone, iPad . . ."

I like that AI corrects their typos. But am annoyed that they make their corrections with out without leaving a hint that they were wrong in the first place. What is this the Soviet Tass News Agency? Rupert Murdock's Wall Street Journal?

Seriously though, how hard can it be to strikeout unwanted text (leaving it legible) and making the correction properly?

They would sell far more if they would stop hobbling it (bluetooth, certain pieces of software, etc.) and give it a decent camera. Lots of folks would have a Virgin mobile phone with an affordable contract hiding in their briefcase and use their iPt to take calls and interact with the internet. Savings? about $1200 over the time of a 2 year contract.

More than old Nintendo titles that might be difficult to adapt to touch input, a niche of iPad game I see as still untapped is the conversion/port of some old turn-based early RPGs written for Win/Mac desktops.

Titles that come to mind are the Baulder's Gate series, and Fallout 1 & 2. Heck, even all the old map-based games like Warcraft I, II, and III, Age of Empires, StarCraft I, etc.

Those games would easily be adapted to touch input and have huge followings of nostalgic gamers that now have iPads, are chomping at the bit for "real" substantial games on the iOS platform, and would be willing to pony up ~$10/title.

From what I've seen, new titles developed for the iPad that try to fill this space, longer plot-based games, are severely lacking. I know I would love to play Fallout II all over again on the iPad.

I wish Apple can buy Nintendo. According to Japanese law I don't think you can buy a Japan bases company. But the question is can Apple buy the Nintendo Catalog of game franchisees.

Apple has to keep their costs down. If they start add a lot more components to the iPod touch, the cost will increase as well as the price.

The retail value of an iPhone is about $700 (many people pay this amount in countries where subsidized handsets and long-term contracts are not standard practice). Apple has been selling unsubsidized handsets in the US for a couple of years (it was not aggressively marketed), more recently they are unlocked as well.

Apple will likely improve the camera quality in future models, however it is doubtful that the iPod touch's images will ever match those of the iPhone because of size constraints (and Steve will not let the iPod touch get as thick as the iPhone).

I would love to see an iPod touch with 3G cellular data with an optional month-by-month plan like the iPad, however I am rather doubtful we will see something like this.

Exactly, a stylus. Thumbs are not styluses and do not offer the same precision, and have a tendency to obscure most of the screen.

Not sure but I think Apple might phase out some of the iPOD models. But then again who knows.

I don't Super-Mario would do good in the touch controller option. But it would be great if Apple and Nintendo Joined forces to create a controller addon for the iphone and ipad. But there brings up the question can apple buy Nintendo's back catalog

I couldn't agree more. Both my wife and I carry around both an iPt AND a TracFone. We'd love the integration of the devices the iPhone offers, but not for $1200-$2000 ($2400-$4000 for both of us) every two years.

I was so excited and ready to buy the 4th gen iPt when I heard it finally had a camera, then so disappointed when I found out it was a CrackerJack POS, so didn't upgrade. It still also needs GPS.

Crossing my finger for the 5th gen, but not holding my breath either.

Now if I could buy an non-contract iPhone direct from Apple and could use my TracFone card and IDK, an app, that would be ideal. I'd even pay the unsubsidized price for the iPhone. Not holding my breath for that option either.

ummm, "investors" are quite literally putting their money where their mouths are. That's kind of what makes them investors...

Actually I think Nintendo might more accurately be described as the OPPOSITE of Apple.

Apple write great software in order to sell their hardware. Their margins on hardware are legendary in the industry, whilst they virtually give away their software (iOS updates are free, OS X updates close to free at $29.99).

Nintendo on the other hand make hardware in order to sell their software. Although I don't have the numbers, it's widely acknowledged that games consoles are often sold at a loss to build an installed base, with all of the industry profits then coming from software (games titles) sales.

I'm hoping to do something similar with the iPhone 5.

I'd like to purchase it unlocked at the unsubsidized price (off-contract) and use my AT&T GoPhone SIM. I think my charges would average about $18 per month between voice, data, and a few texts. Apparently, the only thing that doesn't work is Visual Voicemail, however since I use Google Voice, I wouldn't be using AT&T's voicemail anyhow; same with SMS.

Over the course of two years, I think I would save about $400 annually versus the subsidized handset and the cheapest AT&T plan.

While I understand your point from a economic standpoint, I'm making the point that no one would've bought the Wii if the software had sucked. Remember all the naysayers prior to its launch? It was a Revolution (code name humor), sure, but it wouldn't have been if its games had sucked. Great games built with great care to utilize the hardware sells the hardware. It wouldn't have sold otherwise, much less become the most sold hardware of this generation.

Sony and Microsoft sold their hardware at a loss, but Nintendo never sold hardware at a loss (though the 3DS might be the exception). Nintendo makes money on everything.

The 3DS isn't doing well, but neither did the Gamecube. Back then, people cried gloom and doom for Nintendo and thought they should become a third party developer to Sony and Microsoft. Imagine if they did. The Wii wouldn't exist, and we all know how successful that's been for them.

Just as it would kill Apple to license OS X, it would kill Nintendo to replace their handheld business to make games exclusively for iPods, iPads, and iPhones. Yes, they'd attract more customers selling $1-10 games, but would the volume make up for 1) the revenue they get from their $40 games (and they rarely go down in price), 2) the money they make off the DS and accessories, 3) the money they make licensing third party games? I highly doubt it.

And if Nintendo made an iOS that required an accessory, they'd sell even less games than they would.

Just because the iOS market is a bigger market doesn't mean there's more money to be had from Nintendo or other game developers. With that logic, developers should focus on Android instead of iOS because it's growing in marketshare and that's more important than profit, right?

So you're comparing $.99 games to games you'd normally pay $50 for? Oh cry me a river when you're complaining that the quality isn't very good when the price differential is so very high that it takes a hit on software quality. If you'd be willing to pay closer to $10, $15 per game, then you might have something to complain about.

C'mon. You can't fault them when they leave their typos up on the screen, and then correct it, and still lambast them anyway

No, but that's not what I or they did.
They made the correction and left no trace of it, which is called revisionism (in some ways it's similar to how you purposely misrepresented the facts in your post.) As an oversight, it's far more sloppy than not proofreading the article in the first place. If intentional though, it's not merely sloppy, it's sneaky and unethical. In this case it's no big deal, but it still doesn't meet the minimum acceptable standard of journalistic practice.

AI shouldn't allow themselves to slide into the same bin with either Murdock, tabloids, or Stalin. Next thing you know they'll be purchasing stolen property, like Gizmodo!

iPad and iPod Touch are annihilating Nintendo's traditional audience. They are largely the same price but provide way more functionality and cheaper games.

On one hand I think it would make a lot of sense for nintendo to go in the app store, on the other hand I like the new developers like rovio and gameloft and don't want to see them stomped out in favor of some giant big name console publishers.

Yes I want Pokemanz and Zelda and Mario Kart on iOS because I'm sick of reading all the memes and jokes online and not knowing what they are all about!

MARIO KAAAAAAAARRRRTTTTT

Game exclusivity sucks

Loom for iPad. PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN LUCAS!

Rovio just got valued at $1 billion. They'll be fine. Nintendo and PlayStation titles coming to iPad will only fuel more iPad consumption and hence, more sales for all game developers. Throw in an A6 AppleTV as gaming console and iOS will become a must-develop-for platform. (Of course, needs a bit more improvement in control mechanisms, better graphics will be useful, etc. etc.)

iPod touch. ipad. both of which could play the games, no required contracts for phone service

I agree with this. The other thing to keep in mind is gaming development cycles.

Apple releases a new phone pretty much every year - but worse, almost discontinues hardware that's over 2 years old, which makes sense in some cases as the jump in performance is so high.

Nintendo's own hardware stays the same over 5-6 years so the gaming performance is guaranteed over that time.

Then we get to the App Store. With their own limited selection of titles, the titles can stand out. In a store with over 300,000 apps, people have to actively search for Nintendo's games to see them. The price issue would make it unworkable.


There's only so many times you can play old games without getting bored with them. There will be new generations that haven't experienced the old games so some may take off again and I'm sure there are people who would love a multiplayer Mario Kart game but you can already play these old titles on iOS devices as well as PSone titles. Better controls per game would improve them but I would only see it as one of those moves that other developers make on the iOS platform, which is to have a presence but not really take it seriously.

This is also indicative of a bigger problem. The iOS platform should have its own franchises to help it stand alone as a gaming platform and not rely on Nintendo. Publishers tried to make titles like Rolando, Angry Birds, Doodle Jump and all manner of quirky apps out to be the defining apps for the platform but it just hasn't really taken hold - the good titles don't keep coming and any decent ones have no depth to the experience. To put it concisely:

iPhone games just aren't any fun.

This opinion will vary depending on what games you like but I don't think I've come across a single iOS title that I regard more enjoyable than even the weaker titles on 20-year-old gaming systems and it's not just the controls.

That is all true - and it works in the console market where games are $40 or so. You can sell the system itself at low margin, break-even, or even a loss if you sell enough games and accessories to make up for it. Essentially, if you sell 5 $40 games per console at 70% margin, that's $140 margin which you can add to your console margin to figure out the value of that customer.

It doesn't work so well when the games are $0.99. You have to sell a LOT of games to make it worthwhile to sell a $200 console at break-even or a loss.

The best scenario for Nintendo is probably to sell the games on iOS if they can find a way to use them to make their console more attractive. For example, if it can be demonstrated that game play is far more enjoyable on the large screen, then it's possible that the $0.99 (or even $4.99 or $9.99) sale might get people interested in the game and encourage them to buy a console later. That would be the biggest potential win for Nintendo. Whether they could pull it off, is another matter.

My daughter would by SuperMario for her iPod Touch. But she almost never plays on the Wii any more, so I'm not sure the strategy would ever work.


Why would Apple do that?

First, the games are already being targeted at iOS and driving customers to iOS.

Second, if Apple buys them, they instantly become a competitor to their game developers - and could cause some of them to lose interest.

Normally I'd say that's a good argument but in the case of games it doesn't seem to apply. Pretty much every major games platform is owned or was owned by a firm that either develops games or at the very least publishes them.

Game developers are used to competing with the platform owner.

This is what I'm thinking. releasing only the classics (arcade too) on other devices it adds value to their nintendo only new releases and could make them some big money on old titles. A priprority controller for iOS would also be a great move.

Perhaps not. These days their games are mostly about 3d, first person stuff. THey could keep that on their own machines due to the lack of power in the iPad etc and just port over the very early games like SM 1 and 2 without devaluing their current hardware.

I think the main flaw when it comes to the controls is just that you can't do two gestures at once. If you look at a standard controller, your two thumbs control 10 buttons and two analog sticks. The advantage they have is the shoulder buttons as you can have 4 fingers on those all the time.

All the iPhone really needs is shoulder buttons.

Trouble is, how to implement them on a device with no fixed orientation. If the back of the phone was touch-sensitive, it might work but I think they could just make the edge touch-sensitive like this:



I don't think it matters if it only works in one direction - although they have to take account of the earphone location.

This kind of basic development gives you way more control over games. It can be a capacitive metal band. In a first person shooter, it gets mapped to fire so you can move with the left thumb, aim with the right thumb and fire with the first finger. Platformers can use it to jump and fire so you get the timing right.

In my opinion it's a great step going inside the iPhone games industry , Good money.

Nintendo has some options, they could partner with Apple to add exclusive interactivity between iOS devices and their hardware (ie iPhone/iTouch controller, viewer, interconnectivity for messaging, camera, accelerometer, etc...), make an agreement to provide iTunes content on their console (again exclusive), piggy back off of Apple's new data center for online gaming and work with Apple to improve it, perhaps add Ping/Game Center social networking, add/license iChat/FaceTime or work on a Nintendo Game Store powered by Apple.

There are plenty of other ways they can collaborate.

It would be amazing if Apple were to buy Nintendo or make them a subsidiary (to keep the brand name, ie FileMaker)

Great idea below. Or, they could simply sell a Nintendo gaming case accessory rather than have to re-engineer the iPhone a lot for gaming control.