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NINTENDO: WILL WE ALL BECOME MIITOMO SAPIENS? by Mr Biffo

30/10/2015

6 Comments

 
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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.

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.
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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.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
WHAT IS THE NINTENDO NX?
SCAREMONGERING: DOES THE GAMES INDUSTRY BRING IT UPON ITSELF? by Mr Biffo
REVIEW: HALO 5 GUARDIANS (Xbox One)
6 Comments
lilock3
30/10/2015 02:20:33 pm

I agree with you and have to applaud Nintendo for trying to forge their own path here, I just don't know if maybe this is too big a risk - I don't see the hook.

Admittedly they're going after the same casual/non-gamer market that they managed to get hooked on the original Wii (albeit briefly), so a thirty-something long-time fan such as myself isn't exactly the target market, but then the prospect of playing Mario on a phone isn't my idea of gaming nirvana no matter what Pachter says.

The Wii caught the attention of the mass market because it stood out from the two other home consoles on the market. It was different, fun, and easy to understand. How is Miitomo going to stand out from the tens of thousands of apps/games in the app-stores? I suspect Nintendo are struggling with this too, that why they say they've delayed the launch until next year "to fully promote and explain Miitomo".

Reply
Dangerous Dave
30/10/2015 08:18:57 pm

I've had a lot of respect for Nintendo since the DS/Wii era. As you say, they're still prone to making silly decisions and can be incredibly stubborn (or perhaps just plain ignorant) when it comes to particular business decisions. However, to me they've become this alternative gaming scene. They've steered clear of what nearly all other major developers and publishers aim for (the yearly-cycle of open-ended sandbox of errands).

They have (at least until very recently) had a lot of respect for both their fans and their game series. If they can't offer something new, they like to make sure that what they do repeat is carefully crafted and polished to perfection. It's a shame they've had to resort to some half-arsed looking cash-ins of late, but Miitomo is enough to reinforce the belief that Nintendo aren't going to sell out or join the masses too soon.

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Superbeast 37
31/10/2015 09:42:42 am

Yup Nintendo never do things the obvious way.

That is why a high disposable income, big gaming spender like myself who bought a tonne of their products in the past, doesn't spend a penny on their products anymore.

Your phrase about "Nintendo hates you" has been ringing in my head for twenty odd years now because that is exactly how they made me feel. They were so arrogant I could not even throw my money at them. They didn't want it.

As I hit 40 I move into a grey area between casual and hardcore and I don't feel Nintendo offers anything for either part of that. Their products didn't grow up with us.

They have already milked and burned out all my nostalgia for their past greatness.

My 9 year old Nephew views Nintendo as those crap games he saw his Dad playing and is all into Xbox and PlayStation.

Christ even little kids have grown out of Nintendo's offerings. Well, kids have never wanted kids stuff, they have always wanted to emulate adults. Nintendo have lost the adult market and that has cost them all the other markets too.

Kids want grown up looking mobile games, not Nintendo's childish "safe space" products. I sure as hell don't want them them.

People don't want "Nintendofication" anymore imo. The 80's and 90's are done. It doesn't work for modern audiences where even the kids are like crusty cynical old buggers.

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Voodoo76
1/11/2015 07:52:04 pm

Yeh Nintendo bring out a black box for £300 with the same spec as the other two, and stop trying to be original. COD and FIFA for everyone!!

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Lucius Merriweather link
2/11/2015 12:37:38 pm

I'm afraid I couldn't disagree with you more, Superbeast old chap. The Wii U is pretty much the only console I play these days precisely because it offers exactly the kind of games I want to play as a late-30s gamer. You could argue that games such as Mario Kart 8 are childish, but I warrant they show far more sophistication than teen-bait such as Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty. Watching videos of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, I find myself rolling my eyes at its naivety, as it acts like some angsty emo tween scratching his name into a bus stop with a compass and complaining that all adults are fascists.

I've never rolled my eyes at a Nintendo game.

Who the hell knows what they're doing with Miitomo, but I'm glad they do things their own way, and I hope it works out for them.

Reply
EelsInMeBum
3/11/2015 09:19:52 am

Hoping Nintendo finds some weird magic nobody else has thought of. The only way they're gonna do that is by being all strange like this. So go for it I say.

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