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Iwata: Nintendo was Not Cornered to Move to Smartphones - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 29 March 2015 / 4,602 Views

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in an investors call has stated that Nintendo was not cornered when they announced the partnership with DeNA to bring their franchises to smartphones. He stated that companies need to evolve in order to remain relevant in the changing market.

"A variety of media have written that Nintendo is cornered a number of times, but I do not think we were cornered at all," said Iwata. "Needless to say, we are also aware that unless a company can deal with the rapidly changing world, it will face decline. But I would like to emphasize here that our alliance is not the result of a lack of better options for a cornered company."

"When I first met with Mr. Moriyasu, I started to wonder if there was anything we could work on together. After that, the more we discussed, the more I realized that DeNA knew so many things that Nintendo did not. Mr. Moriyasu even said that DeNA did not mind remaining in the background as long as it could collaborate with Nintendo, and I came to realize that this could be a very productive opportunity as in comparison to what Nintendo might have been able to achieve by itself. We would be able to provide consumers with far more attractive offers in terms of entertainment experiences and speed."

"This is why I just said that this is not a decision made out of a lack of options. In fact, Nintendo has received a number of proposals from a variety of companies. Among them, Nintendo has proactively chosen DeNA, and today, we are able to make this announcement."

"From DeNA’s point of view, the app game market for smart devices including smartphones is precisely what we have been focusing on," said Moriyasu. "We recently created a hit game app, and we have a very good sense that we will be successful in this area. We evaluated what options are out there in order to expand our business and presence even further, and we thought the best one is to form a partnership with Nintendo. Nintendo has extremely powerful IP, and leveraging this IP will be very effective to grow our business even more. It makes a lot of sense to us, and we are ecstatic that we are able to form this alliance."

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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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3 Comments
FujiokaMidori (on 30 March 2015)

Well... how a console with Smash Brothers sells less than a "Dead on Arrival" System (Vita) and a 9yo system (PS3) tells a big story.

  • +1
TheGreatGamerGod (on 30 March 2015)

If Nintendo get this right they can drive up sales of their consoles by putting these small spin off mobile games out and reaching young kids early on who will then pester their parents to get the actual console and games (and staying relevant to everyone else), plus there's the cash they make from games sold on those platforms. It should bring in users and generate quite a large windfall as long as the games aren't terrible. The big factor in this is will Dena's licensed Nintendo games suck or not. I doubt it as Nintendo are supervising.

  • 0
kljesta64 (on 29 March 2015)

mobile goes nintendo

  • -6