Apple CEO Tim Cook meets Nintendo executives, plays Super Mario Run in Japan visit

AppleInsider

Continuing his East Asian tour, Apple CEO Tim Cook arrived in Japan this week and on Wednesday visited a popular shrine in Kyoto, met with executives from Nintendo and scored an early preview of Super Mario Run for iOS.

Source: Tim Cook via Twitter

At around 9 a.m. Japan time, Cook tweeted out "good morning" in Japanese, a routine for the CEO world-traveler who commonly uses the microblogging service to greet locals in their native tongue. A picture accompanying the message shows Cook and an unidentified woman walking through the famed torii, or traditional Japanese gates, at Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto.

Cook later tweeted a picture of a meeting at Nintendo, likely at the gaming giant's headquarters in Kyoto, where he is seen playing the hotly anticipated iOS title "Super Mario Run" with legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Scheduled to arrive before the end of 2016, Miyamoto presented the game onstage during a surprise appearance at Apple's iPhone 7 event last month.

Besides taking a first look at the most awaited iOS game of the year, what other business Cook plans to handle in Japan is unknown.

Cook makes his way to Japan via Shenzhen, China, where on Tuesday he revealed Apple's plans to open an R&D center in 2017. Reported by local media yesterday, the upcoming facility is expected to foster hardware production and software developing talent in China's manufacturing mecca.

cali

MY TWO FAVORITE COMPANIES COLLIDING?!!

*head explodes*

entropys

Maybe Cook is interested in improving Nintendo hardware.  After all he seems to have lost interest in Macs.

plankton

Or perhaps he could tell Apple Japan to switch on transit directions for Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo in Apple Maps so he doesn't get lost on the subway.

ireland

entropys said:

Maybe Cook is interested in improving Nintendo hardware.  After all he seems to have lost interest in Macs.

Enough now please. We've seen enough of these comments by now. If they announce no new Macs this year then by all means go nuts, but there's a rumour of an event coming for Macs. Expect new Mac Pro, new display possibly with graphics card that allows the display to work with most any Mac. New MacBook Pro. Possibly a Retina MacBook Air with USBc and who knows, perhaps more: maybe updated iMac, maybe update Mac mini.

ravnorodom

I am waiting for Mac mini update. Nintendo for iOS is cool and I am all in for that. Did not know Nintendo headquarter is in Kyoto. I just missed my chance checking it out when I was there.

slprescott

Apple seems to have all the right ingredients to make a big play in the Console Gaming market, but they've held off so far.  They have hardware, software, SDK, a large portfolio of mobile games, and a vibrant Developer community.  They also have R&D into VR and AR.  The AppleTV 4 doesn't seem to have gained much traction as a gaming platform... at least I'm not hearing much chatter on the Internet related to it.  Maybe Apple will eventually release a product which is explicitly targeted at the traditional Console Gaming market.

entropys

Well it is pretty old, Ireland, that is true.  Thing is, maybe Someone at Apple actually looks at these forums occasionally and thus there is the remote possibility of enough grief will make sure they do not inflict on us long suffering macheads the Great Mac Drought™ ever again.

A merger with nintendo would be cool though.

Although I remember Pippin, slprescott.

brucemc

slprescott said:

Apple seems to have all the right ingredients to make a big play in the Console Gaming market, but they've held off so far.  They have hardware, software, SDK, a large portfolio of mobile games, and a vibrant Developer community.  They also have R&D into VR and AR.  The AppleTV 4 doesn't seem to have gained much traction as a gaming platform... at least I'm not hearing much chatter on the Internet related to it.  Maybe Apple will eventually release a product which is explicitly targeted at the traditional Console Gaming market.

To enter an established market (without losing a boatload of money), a company usual looks for an "inflection" point in that market.  The point where some disruption is possible.  For example, Microsoft entered consoles when HD was starting to gain traction, when PC-level games could come to a dedicated console.  Even then, it took many, many years for MS to become profitable in that business.  Tesla made its move on the back of the Climate Change (AGW) concerns, and availability of Li-ion batteries to make the range reasonable (a huge leap from previous EV's).

VR might be an opportunity for new gaming vendors to enter (Facebook seems to think so). 

Apple of course is the leader in mobile casual gaming, and the ATV4 should really be seen as an extension of that.

h2p

ireland said:

entropys said:

Maybe Cook is interested in improving Nintendo hardware.  After all he seems to have lost interest in Macs.

Enough now please... If they announce no new Macs this year then by all means go nuts... maybe updated iMac...

Please and pretty please, announce new MacPros and iMacs!

I still agree that it is really unfortunate that the MacPro has been neglected. With the new cylinder design, I was very excited to get the Gen2 MacPro. Now it's 3 years later and I'm more than ready for a MacPro (and a couple of iMacs).

So, please and pretty please... 

h2p

SuperMario Run was announced as a pay-once title. Which was derided in some circles as the "old way to make money" (with in-app purchases the mod way to go).

Do we know what the price will be?

I, for one, am glad to see a title with the old-style purchase. They can charge an upgrade fee for full number upgrades. I won't even mind in-app new characters, etc if they are low priced and truly optional. 

I am not fond of the Free/High-priced in-app model used by "Real Racing" for iOS... in-app Racing $ & Gold up to $99... which, for all practical purposes, turns into $300-400 to purchase all of the cars needed to complete the game (of course, they keep adding new Series so the purchasing is endless). I won't and don't shell out that kind of money for a game. Some cars are only purchased with gold – enough gold that it could take a couple of years worth for one vehicle (some priced for "low" enough gold to only take a few months to a year to earn).

cali

Wait I just realized the article doesn't mention who the third man is. I'm pretty sure it's Nintendo president Kimishima.



Let that sink in. I really hope they were doing business.

cali

h2p said:

SuperMario Run was announced as a pay-once title. Which was derided in some circles as the "old way to make money" (with in-app purchases the mod way to go).

Do we know what the price will be?

I, for one, am glad to see a title with the old-style purchase. They can charge an upgrade fee for full number upgrades. I won't even mind in-app new characters, etc if they are low priced and truly optional. 

I am not fond of the Free/High-priced in-app model used by "Real Racing" for iOS... in-app Racing $ & Gold up to $99... which, for all practical purposes, turns into $300-400 to purchase all of the cars needed to complete the game (of course, they keep adding new Series so the purchasing is endless). I won't and don't shell out that kind of money for a game. Some cars are only purchased with gold – enough gold that it could take a couple of years worth for one vehicle (some priced for "low" enough gold to only take a few months to a year to earn).

 That's nothing check out Clash of Clans or game of war. People are paying thousands each just to stay as top players yet the graphics are garbage. You would think with all the money they were making off the game they would put some of it back into graphics and gameplay.