It looks like Nintendo has no plans to exit the mobile gaming industry.
Earlier this month, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa discussed how the company’s focus could shift away from home consoles in the future. Some assumed that this was the result of the moderate success Nintendo has experienced in the mobile space.
While there is likely at least some truth to this theory, in a recent interview with Japanese publication Kyoto Shimbun (translated by Nintendo Everything), Furukawa says the company has no plans to work solely on smartphone games.
“We don’t intend for Switch games to play like smartphone games, or vice versa,” said Furukawa during the interview with Kyoto Shimbun, while referring to Pokemon Let’s Go and Pokemon Go.
“Our goal is to get people interested in Nintendo’s characters and increase our fanbase.”
Furukawa then went on to state that Nintendo plans to release two to three mobile games per year. The Japanese gaming giant’s current mobile titles include Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Dragalia Lost and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Back in January, 2018, Nintendo revealed plans to bring the Mario Kart series to Android and iOS with Mario Kart Tour.
Furukawa also briefly discussed the now eight-year-old 3DS handheld during the interview.
“We’re nearly eight years into the 3DS’s lifecycle now, so the amount of gamers who have wanted to purchase it are already there,” said Furukawa.
“The 3DS has its advantages in being a simple and lightweight handheld that is also quite inexpensive. We plan to continue our 3DS business moving forward, as we’ve already prepared it to exist alongside the Switch.”
The key takeaway from this interview is that though Nintendo continues to experiment in the mobile space, the company seems to have no plans to change the way it handles its home consoles, including the still very popular Switch.
Source: Kyoto Shimbun, Nintendo Everything
