Speaking on the BBC’s On The Money programme yesterday, UK Nintendo chief David Yarnton questioned the fiscal returns on offer for developers from iPhone and other game-playing mobiles.
Having appeared on BBC’s On The Money programme yesterday, David Yarnton, General Manager of Nintendo UK, has continued to dismiss any form of threat from mobile devices. Within the interview he commented that experiences on dedicated devices far outweigh the brief “five minute, ten minute fix on a mobile phone,” something that echoes a similar sentiment held by Reggie Fils-Aime.
“It’s like comparing oranges and apples,” he stated. “The content we provide on our handheld gaming is far in advance of what you can pick up for a five minute, ten-minute fix on a mobile phone. To some extent, you’ve seen there have been games [on mobiles] for ages and ages.
“In our industry there’s always been talk about apps and things coming on… I think it’s grown and there’s so many of them, but the actual business model is yet to be proven to some extent. I know a lot of software developers, when they look at their sales on the mobile phone side [they see] it’s probably at this stage very marginal.”
Yarnton then revealed that the company is to continue its pursuit of targeting non-gamers with the Wii console, following a query as to whether gamers would ever move back to PC gaming from consoles.
“I don’t think the numbers actually show that,” Yarnton explained. “Over a third of households in the UK own a Wii console… I mean you’ve got early adopters in any sort of industry and they will buy in early. But there is still more people that don’t own consoles than there are that do – and that’s to some extent where we’re looking to expand.”
