‘Mobile can rescue Nintendo consoles’

Smartphone experts say that Nintendo’s move into the mobile market will boost Wii U and 3DS sales, not harm them.

Nintendo announced this week that it will release the likes of Mario on smartphones via a partnership with mobile games giant DeNA. DeNA will create a platform that connects Nintendo’s mobile games with Wii U, 3DS and the to-be-unveiled new console: NX.

Developer Ben Cousins, who used to work for DeNA, says that this platform can help Nintendo win back its fans that have defected to mobile.

It needs to use cross-promotion to leverage Nintendo fans onto the mobile games and mobile gamers over to the Nintendo platforms,” he said.

Without a shared account system of some kind, Nintendo end up with something it doesn’t want – an island of Nintendo mobile gamers and an island of Nintendo console gamers who never interact.

Nintendo will want to do things like offer mobile players free in-game currency or items if they buy the console version of the game.

Without a shared backend and account system, it’s really hard to pull off this kind of cross-promotion and interoperability.”

IHS analyst Piers Harding-Rolls added: Not only is there significant revenue to be made directly from smartphone and tablet consumers by Nintendo; app ecosystems are also very important in reaching new customers to make them aware of the Nintendo brand and to drive them to its dedicated consoles.”