Nintendo "on track to become primarily a software company" says Gordon
EA veteran and investor Bing Gordon weighs in on the big N
Nintendo continues to be pressured on all sides - not only will Microsoft and Sony likely exert pricing pressure on Wii U this holiday, but the onslaught of smartphones and tablets and free-to-play has completely changed the gaming ecosystem, and specific Nintendo hardware may not be greatly desired in the future, notes entrepreneur Bing Gordon.
Speaking to GamesIndustry International in a wide-ranging interview on the state of the games business, the EA veteran commented, "I think Nintendo's already on track to become primarily a software company."
"I can imagine a day when Nintendo wonders - and maybe it's generational change - when Nintendo wonders if they ought to take some of their best games and make them apps."
Gordon does point out, however, that unlike Sega, Nintendo hasn't made any huge missteps and having Shigeru Miyamoto on your team always helps. "So far, when Miyamoto makes a perfect game, in his career he makes games worth $200 - it's worth buying a system for," Gordon said.
While it's about as likely as hell freezing over, Gordon commented that a Nintendo-Apple partnership would really be a force to be reckoned with. "Neither Apple or Nintendo - both those companies like control - is likely to want a partnership, but a partnership would be stunningly cool," he said.
Check out the full interview with Gordon for insights on many others topics, including Facebook, mobile, Activision, and more.
"I can imagine a day when Nintendo...take some of their best games and make them apps."
"Neither Apple or Nintendo - both those companies like control...."
Going the software route completely relinquishes that control.
And I don't get why people in the industry continue to make this prediction. Nintendo is the only one that makes profits on their hardware so why in the world would it be them that drops that segment but not Sony or MS?
I also noticed he's in the camp that calls Nintendo as being in the toy business rather than in the video game business (see full interview).
The only exemption is Pokemon which belongs to Game Freaks. Although they're a second party developer for Nintendo, they're an independent company. They have previously released their game in SEGA's PICO console.
Granted, Nintendo is quite guilty of trying too hard to capitalize on a few trends (3D at least twice, despite rational arguments against it), but when they get it right, they're the company people emulate (motion control, even though they didn't invent it)...
The only way it would make sense is if they also had a $299 NintendoPhone.
If they did their IP would easily rule the gaming world. There's no two ways about it...
The major difference between Nintendo and Sega is, Sega has flopped on to many of there major hardware, where as Nintendo hasn't.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Doug Paras on 25th July 2012 2:54am
"Game Freaks as a company can make games for non-nintendo systems but not Pokémon games."
You sure about that? Like I said they already made a "Pokemon" game for the "SEGA" PICO. I have it in my collection. It's called "Pokemon Advance Generation".