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Nintendo announced in their most recent earnings call that they have a plan to launch 5 new games for “smart devices” by Spring of 2017. The first title is slated to launch this year, with others sure to be littered throughout 2016 and the early parts of 2017.
Nintendo didn’t confirm any platforms they’d be targeting, but we imagine Android won’t be left out of the fun. It’s the biggest smartphone operating system by market share, after all, and if there plans were exclusive to Apple it’s likely they would have mentioned so.
So what’s coming? Early murmurings tell us not to expect direct ports of existing Nintendo games, and there’s no guarantee anything they’re planning will take their cue from existing intellectual properties, either. Whatever the case is, Nintendo says they’re expecting to promote each game strongly and support them like the “hits” they want them to be.
The one thing we do know is that there’s no need to worry that Nintendo will be bringing some heat. The company’s track record for producing and developing quality games is near flawless, and considering they’re one of the few console makers who have their attention focused exclusively on games there’s no reason to believe they won’t do much of the same for their mobile efforts. We’re likely to hear more at E3 2015 next month, which our friends from Wii U Daily, PS4 Daily and Xbox One Daily will be attending in full force.
[via Wii U Daily]
As a long time Nintendo fan, I can’t wait to see what Nintendo does in the mobile phone space.
You would be crazy not to port some of the games over to a mobile platform such as Android and Ios. Most, but not all adults don’t own a Nintendo 3ds or a wii so but will play them on a cell phone. Extra $$ for them in the way of in-app purchases. They should have done this long ago but I guess better late than never…
I think they should charge one fee for these games when they come. If it’s the actual game we used to play coming to the mobile platform, I think in-app purchases would ruin the gaming experience.
I totally agree, but most companies are greedy and will even charge for the game and then again for in app purchases to make money on top of money lol
You’re right. I wouldn’t be to surprised, but I really hope they don’t. Could you imagine playing Mario, Pokemon, or any of their other big titles, and have to pay to evolve, get coins, or something like that. I just can’t imagine it.
I mean you can play a lot of these games on emulators on your phone already, but something that’s optimized would be sweet.
Yes. Usually that’s bad, but not if it’s as DLC. Then, it’s just a mechanism to get more content.
It’s not at all that simple; you can’t just port a game that require physical buttons for input like most Mario and Zelda games to a device with a flat screen and expect everything to work. This is why Nintendo partnered with DeNa (for better or worse), to design games tailored to that specific platform, rather than attempting to translate old games without actually making anything new and calling it a day.
Tell that to the emulator I’ve been running on my phone since the OG droid days.
If you tell me next that you have had no problems with emulated joysticks and buttons, I’d be inclined to believe that you’re a unicorn.
Yes you can. Emulators do it fine, plus hardware controllers for android and iOS are easily available these days.
If they’d port over one of the old Pokemon games from the Game Boy Color days I’d check it out.
Wish PS would put Crash Bandicoot on Android. :(
Crash Bandicoot was everything! I couldn’t get enough of those games. They need to bring them back. Even if it was simply remastered.
Well if you have an Xperia play laying around they came preloaded with crash bandicoot lol.
Bad example I’m sure but it was on android! Just… Not the device You may want :)
With emulators, you can have both of those things on your android device.
Just let the Nintendo dinosaur die off already. Their systems continue to underwhelm and show no real progression or ingenuity. The games are mostly rehashes of older titles and they are geared overwhelmingly toward younger kids. They had the opportunity to tap the mobile tech world years ago but, as usual, they thought the old ways would always work.
Oh, boy! You’re so wrong i won’t even waste my time trying to argue
Really, then why does Nintendo continue year after year to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy? Why do they have the worst console sales of any manufacturer? I think you, quite frankly, are the one that’s “so wrong”.
They lost money due to:
– a lack of online gaming and services.
– lack of support for third party devs.
– a lack of innovative or relevant hardware at a desirable price
– the increase in the Yen (affecting export costs)
– increasing competition from mobile platforms
– lack of media services and functions in their hardware
– a conservative, Japanese/Kyoto-centric view of sales, communication, design and company organisation.
– The migration and polarisation of casuals and hardcore gamers to mobile, next-gen console and PC platforms.
Their in-house games were pretty much regarded by the gaming press as good.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Clearly you haven’t been following any console gaming. In the past year, Nintendo actually put out more unique titles than any other company.
Actually, I have. Nintendo has nothing but rehash. Their sales still plummet.
Sales of their hardware, yes, but their games have sold well, within the constraints of said hardware market.
As for innovation, I agree somewhat that Nintendo milks their franchises, but there are some that they don’t. Most of their actual game experiences (once you remove the brand or franchised character) have innovated or evolved somewhat. I’m sure it’s safe to say that Mario Sunshine deviated from Mario 64 more than, day any of the Call of Duty games, right?
And those younger kid games are generally more fun to play than the rehashes of the adult generic shooter that everybody else puts out.
I agree, but I’m hoping that even with sequels and other games, Nintendo Wii both improve sales for themselves, whilst promoting premium and also genuinely free games (like Lego does), whilst promoting hardware controller support.
Make Mario Party a mobile multi-player game and watch what happens…
Just give me Mario Kart & Mario World and I’m straight!
Golden eye 64 and megaman X please.
Goldeneye, and Super Smash Brothers PLEASE!!!
Super Metroid , TLoZ: link to the past, Starfox , etc etc . w Bluetooth controller support.
3 of the 5 will be a Metroid game, Mario game and a Zelda game. They seem to recycle the hell out of those games. I have emulators already so I already have the games they will release
No, you don’t. The new games will be exactly that; new. Nintendo has clearly stated that they will not be porting over existing games right now.
I could pay like 3 dollars for android nintendogs version.
Pokemon please!
Mario Kart with local multi-player please.