Beyond Fun

Shantybot looks ahead to see what the future of Nintendo is…

The unfortunate passing of Nintendo’s CEO, Satoru Iwata, this past weekend has many wondering what direction the company will go. A new president has yet to be named, but it’s easy to speculate that when it happens, a shift in the company’s strategy will follow.

Weak sales of the Wii U have placed pressure for either new hardware innovation (i.e. the DS and Wii), or a willingness to place titles onto competing systems. It was recently announced that Nintendo is in the process of developing games to be run on smart phones, but that they wouldn’t be “simply porting” existing titles. Nintendo has always poised itself on the strength of it’s games characters, and the Universe’s they inhabit. A move into the smartphone arena seems like an obvious choice, but it’s one that unlocks them from their hardware, which has always been a major strength when it comes to gameplay.

Of course, while gamers of the 80’s and 90’s are very familiar with Nintendo’s game properties and characters, they might not be as well known to up-and-coming players and the ‘smartphone era’ casual gamer. A plunge into the smartphone market might just be the thing Nintendo needs to rejuvenate its presence among the Angry Birds and the Fruit Ninjas.

It’s also very possible that they have a creative hardware move that could put them back in a place of dominance they once knew. As we’ve seen time, and time again, the video game industry is always anticipating and creating new innovation, and Nintendo has a track record that shows that they’re willing to take a chance on a new idea. It’s an interesting time in the gaming world, and we’ll all just have to wait and see what tricks Nintendo has up their sleeve.

-Shantybot