Nintendo Considers Gaming On Smartphones

According to reports from Bloomberg, Nintendo is considering a “new business structure” which will involve smart devices. Despite declining sales, this new business structure doesn’t involve a management reshuffle. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in a press conference:

“We are thinking about a new business structure,” Iwata said at a press conference yesterday in Osaka, Japan. “Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

App Annie recently discovered that consumers have increased their spending on games for Android and iOS devices four times more than that of gaming handheld consoles. This shows just what fierce competition Nintendo is facing. Back in 2010, Iwata is reported to have told senior executives at the company that Apple and its devices were to be viewed as “the enemy of the future”.

He also told CVG last year that the company would “never think about providing [Nintendo’s] precious resources for other platforms at all.”

But if his latest statement is anything to go by then it looks as though Iwata has relented and it could be that the company has no choice but to seriously think about supporting smartphones if it is to keep pace with competitors.

[Image via Technobuffalo]

SOURCE: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/18/nintendo-smartphone-move/