Remember when Nintendo said that Mario wouldn’t be on smartphones? Last week? Yeah, last week. Well, it turns out that’s not quite what they said – while they suggested that mobile devices would never replace consoles, they can be used as marketing tools to push their games and systems. In fact, president Satoru Iwata said:
The key is to figure out a way to use smartphones to make people aware of Nintendo’s games, and encourage them to try out the console version of the games. It doesn’t mean that we should put Mario on smartphones.
That’s quite similar to what Sony are doing, with PlayStation All-Stars Island, Knack’s Quest and Ratchet and Clank: Before the Nexus, and does not mean that Nintendo will be moving to the smartphone market and away from the 3DS and Wii U.
Well, it turns out Nintendo’s approach may be to spread information, either by dedicated channels or similar mini-games and demos which can introduce players into games, to give smartphone players a taste of what can be bought on dedicated Nintendo hardware.
They’ll apparently announce this on Thursday in a briefing for investors, who may be worried about their recent financial struggles. The content will be free, so available to everyone. It’s a smart business plan.
Source: Serkan Toto
KeRaSh
They’ll release a Miiverse app for smartphones and that will be it. I’m not holding my breath for anything else. I actually don’t want to see Mario on a smartphone. I’d much rather have a proper Mario game on my 3DS than a Mario Jungle Run on my phone.