A report yesterday caused Nintendo fans to sit at attention. According to the Nikkei, Nintendo was preparing an Android and iOS app to demo its games. While this app wouldn’t bring full versions of Mario to smartphones, it was widely viewed as a start of something big. Well, bad news. It’s not happening. Nintendo is apparently content living in the past.
The company released a statement to Engadget unequivocally denying the report.
“Nikkei’s article contains information previously stated by Mr Iwata during past press conferences, including statements which relate to Nintendo’s willingness to make use of smart devices to promote our products.
However during such past announcements Mr Iwata has also stated that 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 minigames on smartphone devices. “
Nintendo is quickly slipping. Just last week, the company confirmed that the Wii U was a flop and slashed its sales forecast by 70%. It said it’s expecting Wii U sales to number just 2.8 million units over that period. It also cut its sales forecast for its handheld 3DS console to 13.5 million units from 18 million.
Yet, apparently, Nintendo, for now, is willing to ignore the smartphone, the biggest shift in computing since the desktop computer. Protectionism is a quick way to fade into obscurity.