Nintendo is entering a new era in its long and storied history. With the Nintendo NX coming in March 2017 and the video game giant making its first leap into mobile with Miitomo, and more mobile games planned in the near future, the outlook is arguably very bright for Nintendo.
However, the company and the public are heading into unknown territory. Can Nintendo grab the mobile gaming audience and bring hardcore gamers to their mobile apps?
iDigitalTimes spoke with Charlie Scibetta, senior director of corporate communications for Nintendo of America, about Nintendo’s journey into mobile and reintroducing the Nintendo brand and its IPs to the public.
iDigitalTimes: What’s Nintendo’s focus and strategy on mobile?
Scibetta: “We’re excited about mobile as a platform. We took our time getting on to it because we wanted to make sure the right games were brought forward. One of the things Nintendo prides itself in and felt very passionate about was making sure the game is brought to life with the right control scheme, that’s one of the reasons why we always had a dedicated hardware on the console and handheld front because developers like Mr. Miyamoto will think of a game creation and think ‘what’s the best way to bring that to life?’
“In the case of mobile, we picked franchises like Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem we thought worked well on the mobile platform; [a mobile version won’t] necessarily have the same controls that we have on our dedicated consoles, but it still brings those games to life really well. For the future, we announced that we have two games coming before the end of March 2017, and we said that five games for mobile will come out. We have three already named and one in the market now in Miitomo.
“We’re looking forward to announcing the other two games for mobile when the time is right, but the key is to bring people into the world of Nintendo and our IP. We do that in a lot of different ways; we’re doing that with the mobile games. We also have partnerships with Vans where we see Nintendo IP on footwear, we also have the Universal partnership coming up where a lot of people will learn about our IP through the amusement park: different ways that we can get people excited for our characters and our IP, so we can get them playing the games.”
Is it odd that Nintendo is trying to bring its characters and IP to the public consciousness again? The characters are so iconic.
“We view it as an opportunity to bring this new generation in contact with our characters and our IP. There’s a lot more things that can distract kids than there used to be, in terms of all the different options to entertain their time. They have more TV shows, there’s more ways to play games, more things they can focus their attention on.
“YouTube videos are a great way we communicate about our product, and there’s a lot of other topics that are communicated through YouTube videos. So it’s our job to try and get our brand in front of young people, middle-aged and older people any way we can, as long as it stays true to the characters. We would never cheapen any of our characters or use them in a way that would not be true to their identity. So we always put it through a filter of ‘is it right for the characters, is it right for the brand?’ and as long as the partnership meets those criteria then we’ll explore it.”
We have the Vans, amusement parks and so on but is there anything else Nintendo wants to move toward, like television?
“We do want to get the Nintendo name out to the public... because we feel if people interact with it the right way, we have a fan for life, as long as we continue to innovate on gameplay.
“If you wear the Vans shoes, and it interests you and you want to play the game now, we haven’t done our job yet if they don’t have a good time on the game as well. So there are a lot of different things in the future that we can explore and are exploring as a way to get that contact with current fans and future fans.”
Mobile gaming is such a big business, does Nintendo recognize the potential?
“The mobile market is a huge opportunity for us. We had over 10 million downloads of Miitomo after launch. So we were encouraged by that, we’re encouraged by the opportunity for people who are on their smartphones right now, who know our IP and love it. And those who don’t know [our IP] can become in contact with it on their mobile phones. It’s a great opportunity and we’re going to continue to look into it.”
How about the hardcore gamers? How can Nintendo bring them to mobile?
“One of the great things about a show like E3 is that as soon as we make an announcement, you can immediately play it in the booth and experience it for yourself. So when it comes to ‘how do we get people to try out our mobile games,’ it’s our job to get it out there in a way that they can try it. Whether it’s through a friend or some kind of offer that we do, it’s on us to make sure the gameplay is as good as it can be and worthy of the NIntendo name.
“If we do our job on that front, maybe they’ll decide to give it a try on mobile. And if they decide it’s not for them, that’s fine we always have dedicated systems they can play on, too. We just want to make sure there’s as many ways as possible to play our games because even if mobile gaming is not for me, it may be for a lot of people. So we try to have as many options as possible for people to enjoy our IP and enjoy our games in any way that works for them.”
Would it be good practice to incentivize hardcore gamers and casual mobile players to link the mobile and console systems?
“You’re tapping into something we are thinking about very seriously, and that’s the best way that these systems can work together. More to come on that front in the future.”
