Nintendo have reconfirmed that they have no plans to bring their iconic portly Italian plumber to smartphone devices.
However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had plenty of praise for the market, in that it allows new developers to gain exposure and thrive. Yet, he still maintains that it is damaging the value of games.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing that amateur video game players are now given the opportunity to create their own work and sell it at one dollar,” Iwata explained.
“If you ask me, don’t you think Nintendo should sell Mario on a smartphone for 99 cents, I do not think the answer is yes. We really want to sustain the monetary value of game software at a higher level. Otherwise, we cannot make game creation a rewarding business.”
Iwata claims that smartphone manufacturers don’t care about the games industry itself, but using it to sustain and promote their own platforms. This is similar to what Apple has achieved with the music business, to trick users into purchasing individual tracks rather than full albums is a “smarter activity.”
“They have done so so smartly that they were able to establish the image that they are the saviors of the music industry,” he said. “However, the fact of the matter is they have simply transferred these resources of music and monetary value into somewhere else. And the same thing is happening in the game industry.”
[Thanks Wired]
Iwata praises smartphone market for developer exposure
