Home Nintendo Says It Loves Mobile—It Just Won’t Release Games For Smartphones

Nintendo Says It Loves Mobile—It Just Won’t Release Games For Smartphones

Looks like Nintendo games won’t be showing up on your smartphone anytime soon after all.

Fans and investors have long urged the struggling videogame maker to embrace smartphone and tablet gaming by porting some of its oldest and most beloved games to iOS and Android. And a week ago, Nintendo said it was considering “a big shift” in strategy after forecasting a third straight annual loss, which led many believe that Nintendo’s mobile transition might finally happen. 

But Nintendo now says it has no plans to offer such “mini games” for smartphone platforms. “Nintendo’s intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer mini-games on smartphone devices,” the company said in a statement to Engadget.

According to a report two days ago in the Nikkei, Japan’s leading financial daily, Nintendo may still try to bolster its presence on today’s mobile devices. Too bad its reported ideas so far mostly consist of an upcoming smartphone app for marketing—one designed to spread news about the company’s othergaming platforms and upcoming releases.

The Nikkei reported that Nintendo might also offer playable demo previews of games for smartphones, although Nintendo might well just have denied that, too. (Depends on whether you consider a playable demo a “mini-game.”) Plus, it’s hard to see a company like Nintendo expending the effort to code playable iOS and Android game demos if it doesn’t ever plan to actually release full games on those platforms.

See more: How Nintendo Could Reverse Its Fortunes

So Nintendo’s first steps into today’s mobile market—setting aside its own line of DS handhelds—will almost certainly be baby steps. Which is too bad, because the company needs way more of a strategy than a new “marketing app.”

Nintendo’s latest earnings were dismal—its already meager profits dropped another 30%, and the company forecast a third consecutive annual loss for its full fiscal year. (It originally projected $974 million in profit, but now expects an operating loss of about $336 million.) Nintendo’s president has offered to take a drastic pay cut as a result.

Nintendo has always managed to do a lot with just a little—the list of bestselling video games of all-time includes many of Nintendo’s own titles—so there’s still hope for the company. In fact, two new game titles from the company’s biggest franchises—Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros.—will be arriving this spring, which should help Nintendo promote its underselling year-old console, the Wii U.

Lead image via Nintendo

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