It has been a while since Nintendo announced its plans to move into smartphone gaming.
When the company first revealed its new strategy, there were concerns - at least at first - that it would spell the end for Nintendo's traditional business.
And then the company revealed it was working on a brand new console concept - the NX - which rumours suggest will be a hybrid of under-TV games system, and a DS-like handheld.
However, the mobile plans never went away, and the company has now announced its first smartphone product: a free-to-play social app called Miitomo, which looks like a cross between Whatsapp and Tomodachi Life.
Nintendo president Tasumi Kimishima described it thusly: "You may be able to find out unknown aspects about your friends or unexpected commonalities you share with your friend because Miitomo may pick up the topics that you usually do not discuss but would be willing to answer if asked."
Some are surprised that it's not tied to any of Nintendo's existing brands - it's not a Zelda or Mario game, or like anything the company has ever released before - but the strategy is clearly being thought through carefully. And Nintendo is going big: following its release in the spring of next year, they plan to roll it out into at least 100 countries.
"It would be good if we reached one hundred or two hundred million members," Kimishima honked at Nikkei, optimistically.
When the company first revealed its new strategy, there were concerns - at least at first - that it would spell the end for Nintendo's traditional business.
And then the company revealed it was working on a brand new console concept - the NX - which rumours suggest will be a hybrid of under-TV games system, and a DS-like handheld.
However, the mobile plans never went away, and the company has now announced its first smartphone product: a free-to-play social app called Miitomo, which looks like a cross between Whatsapp and Tomodachi Life.
Nintendo president Tasumi Kimishima described it thusly: "You may be able to find out unknown aspects about your friends or unexpected commonalities you share with your friend because Miitomo may pick up the topics that you usually do not discuss but would be willing to answer if asked."
Some are surprised that it's not tied to any of Nintendo's existing brands - it's not a Zelda or Mario game, or like anything the company has ever released before - but the strategy is clearly being thought through carefully. And Nintendo is going big: following its release in the spring of next year, they plan to roll it out into at least 100 countries.
"It would be good if we reached one hundred or two hundred million members," Kimishima honked at Nikkei, optimistically.
ICONOCLAST MAN STANDING
Nintendo has never done anything exactly as you'd expect, and Miitomo would appear to adopt a typically iconoclastic approach to social media. Users will be required to create a Mii avatar, and then - after answering a series of questions - interact with others, in some way. Typically, Nintendo is describing it as "a totally new experience", one that has gaming elements, and premium, paid-for, features.
The app will launch alongside My Nintendo, a new service designed to provide a bridge between Nintendo's smartphone products and its consoles.
"Needless to say, there is no change to the fact that dedicated game systems remain at the core of Nintendo experiences," insists Kimishima.
What's reassuring is that Nintendo isn't chasing a quick and easy buck. Miitomo is the first of five smartphone titles planned by the company, and while the others may exploit existing Nintendo characters and brands, the move is being thought through carefully, with the end user's experience at the heart of what the company offers.
Unlike other former console giants, who are sliding away from dedicated systems to focus exclusively on smartphones, Nintendo apparently intends to use its mobile apps to build brand awareness, and support its dedicated console titles.
Although, reading between the lines, this is basically Nintendo's way of taking on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Nintendo has never done anything exactly as you'd expect, and Miitomo would appear to adopt a typically iconoclastic approach to social media. Users will be required to create a Mii avatar, and then - after answering a series of questions - interact with others, in some way. Typically, Nintendo is describing it as "a totally new experience", one that has gaming elements, and premium, paid-for, features.
The app will launch alongside My Nintendo, a new service designed to provide a bridge between Nintendo's smartphone products and its consoles.
"Needless to say, there is no change to the fact that dedicated game systems remain at the core of Nintendo experiences," insists Kimishima.
What's reassuring is that Nintendo isn't chasing a quick and easy buck. Miitomo is the first of five smartphone titles planned by the company, and while the others may exploit existing Nintendo characters and brands, the move is being thought through carefully, with the end user's experience at the heart of what the company offers.
Unlike other former console giants, who are sliding away from dedicated systems to focus exclusively on smartphones, Nintendo apparently intends to use its mobile apps to build brand awareness, and support its dedicated console titles.
Although, reading between the lines, this is basically Nintendo's way of taking on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
CLEVER
Not everyone is enamoured with Nintendo's mobile app plans.
The company's shares dipped following the announcement, while Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told NintendoLife: "I don't need Nintendo to give me a cartoon version of myself that allows me to interact with my friends. Facebook already dominates everybody who has social interactions. How the hell is Nintendo going to substitute for that?
"I think a lot of the appeal of the concept that Nintendo was going to enter the mobile market was attributable to a misperception that Nintendo would take its library of content and move it onto the mobile platform. It doesn't look like they have any intention of doing that."
But what would be the point? Nintendo has never done things the obvious way. The company never develops new hardware without considering the types of software that would best use that hardware. This might be the first time Nintendo has created titles for other people's systems, but it's clearly considering the types of things that are possible on smartphones.
Frankly, Michael Pachter can shut up. Rather than lazily just dump a Mario platformer, or a Zelda game, on a touch-screen phone - like everyone else - they appear to have asked the question: how do you Nintendo-fy a smartphone experience? What can that offer that nobody else is doing?
NO GUARANTEE
There's no guarantee that Miitomo is going to be the sizeable hit that Nintendo needs it to be - it's clearly new territory for the company, and Miitomo is new territory for punters. Plus, Nintendo's stubborn way of doing things hasn't always gelled for everyone in recent years.
I'm no Nintendo apologist - the company's corporate culture is as frustratingly stubborn as it is rewarding - but given everything I've been bleating on about in recent days, to find that there is still a games company out there that doesn't take the obvious, easiest, me-too, route, that thinks and plans, and invites everyone to join the party, is a relief. It's just a shame that Nintendo is in a minority.
What is worrying, though, is that such nonconformist thinking is seen as a bad thing by Nintendo's investors and shareholders, and analysts. Such a lack of confidence is hardly going to inspire others to take risks... but for that reason alone I hope Miitomo (and all that follows) is a massive hit for the company, reenergises it, and encourages others to follow in its footsteps.
Or, at the very least, that it gives a mighty middle finger to Michael Pachter's smug face.
Not everyone is enamoured with Nintendo's mobile app plans.
The company's shares dipped following the announcement, while Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told NintendoLife: "I don't need Nintendo to give me a cartoon version of myself that allows me to interact with my friends. Facebook already dominates everybody who has social interactions. How the hell is Nintendo going to substitute for that?
"I think a lot of the appeal of the concept that Nintendo was going to enter the mobile market was attributable to a misperception that Nintendo would take its library of content and move it onto the mobile platform. It doesn't look like they have any intention of doing that."
But what would be the point? Nintendo has never done things the obvious way. The company never develops new hardware without considering the types of software that would best use that hardware. This might be the first time Nintendo has created titles for other people's systems, but it's clearly considering the types of things that are possible on smartphones.
Frankly, Michael Pachter can shut up. Rather than lazily just dump a Mario platformer, or a Zelda game, on a touch-screen phone - like everyone else - they appear to have asked the question: how do you Nintendo-fy a smartphone experience? What can that offer that nobody else is doing?
NO GUARANTEE
There's no guarantee that Miitomo is going to be the sizeable hit that Nintendo needs it to be - it's clearly new territory for the company, and Miitomo is new territory for punters. Plus, Nintendo's stubborn way of doing things hasn't always gelled for everyone in recent years.
I'm no Nintendo apologist - the company's corporate culture is as frustratingly stubborn as it is rewarding - but given everything I've been bleating on about in recent days, to find that there is still a games company out there that doesn't take the obvious, easiest, me-too, route, that thinks and plans, and invites everyone to join the party, is a relief. It's just a shame that Nintendo is in a minority.
What is worrying, though, is that such nonconformist thinking is seen as a bad thing by Nintendo's investors and shareholders, and analysts. Such a lack of confidence is hardly going to inspire others to take risks... but for that reason alone I hope Miitomo (and all that follows) is a massive hit for the company, reenergises it, and encourages others to follow in its footsteps.
Or, at the very least, that it gives a mighty middle finger to Michael Pachter's smug face.
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