The last few years were not exactly great for Nintendo. With the Nintendo Wii U console and now the new Nintendo Switch not quite living up to the hype, the firm may have exhausted its regular avenues to rake in the moolah. But as the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens. Nintendo may have just found an avenue to make profit via its smartphone games.
The firm has shied away from opting to switch to games on mobile platforms all these years over fears that it would eat into the sales of its consoles. Now, realizing the folly of its ways and to ensure that the firm doesn't end up in the red, it is aiming for a steady rollout of various games, including games for cell phones, at the rate of two to three a year.
Nintendo's profits have soared riding piggyback on the success of Pokémon Go for some time now and it reaped great fruits for the firm. Nintendo recently released the Mario Run for iOS which managed to rack up a record 40 million downloads in its first four days. We can see a pattern emerging here and the firm seems to have picked up on the drift. The smartphone games sector needs to be pushed aggressively and that is what Nintendo Co President Tatsumi Kimishima intends to do, as he assured that the firm is keen on delivering more content for smartphones, after the success of " Pokémon Go."
The aim is also to bring new gamers into the fray. Since casual and young gamers are often playing their games on their smartphones the push to opt for smartphone platforms becomes more necessary. There is already a steady demand for Pokémon Go and Mario Run, but the challenge is to see "Whether we can get them to buy the second or third game software," Kimishima said.
Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was initially skeptical about Pokémon Go as it had not garnered enough interest when he showcased it at events ahead of its launch. Once it went online, the game spread like wild fire. "The reaction was huge," he said. Nintendo also said it is ceasing the production of the Wii U home console for all markets.
