Nintendo is certainly enjoying something of a purple pack now. Switchch is selling at incredible prices, the company is spreading its appeal through movies and theme parks and its agencies are receiving more attention than ever before – as proven by the way Crossing the Animals: New Horizons Looks like you've taken over the whole world.
It's interesting though that in this time of success, Nintendo still has people telling them how to run their business. For the first time was the game industry critic and longtime Nintendo critic, Michael Pachter, who in an interview with CNBC about Nintendo's future, future and future, said he felt the company was losing revenue by offering Apple Arcade-style service to its existing retro content on smartphones and tablets
That statement was followed by a report stating that the & # 39; activist & # 39; South America's ValueAct Capital Partners LP – now with a $ 1.1 billion stake in Nintendo – had told its investors that the Japanese giant is currently going to switch to a digital system. see them as big as "Netflix, Disney +, Tencent Interactive Entertainment and Apple Music."
It would be easy to dismiss both of these comments if they did not come very close; after all, Nintendo has been accused of being a fraud when it comes to smartphones. While companies such as Capcom, Sega, Electronic Arts and Konami were quick to connect to the smartphone bandwagon, Nintendo pulled its heels until it entered into a deal in 2015 with DeNA; it has produced several first-generation smartphone games, including Super Super Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
These measures, however, appear to be inadequate; what both Pachter and ValueAct choose is a subscription-based function of Nintendo where it extends to its expanded back catalog to create a stream of revenue from smartphone players who no longer have a home console.
Pachter's comments about a service like Apple Arcade were met with a positive response – we already have Nintendo Switch Internet, right? However, even the most passionate advocate of that particular service won't be hard to say that it does the most with Nintendo's excellent legacy. While the selection of games offered so far is a good thing, there is definitely a chance here at Nintendo indeed drop the doors to its closet and make all the headlines available now? That sounds like a suggestion made by Pachter, but as he says, such a task might make a better impression on a smartphone than on concrete.
As of 2020, about 3.5 million people own and use a smartphone every day, which translates to about 45 percent of the world's population
That may seem completely and completely absurd that Nintendo's business is on its own hardware, but it's all going up. There are over 50 million that are comforted by a power switch in the wild at the time of writing. This is a truly impressive statistic in the video game world, especially when you consider that Swingch is only launched in 2017. However, compare that to the number of people who own a smartphone, and the difference is amazing. From 2020, all around Three billion people owns and operates a smartphone every day, which translates to about 45% of the world's population. Now, it would be foolish to suggest that means that it could be Nintendo's 3.5 billion customers as not everyone will want to play games on their phones, but it gives you an idea of how big the market for content on smartphones is.
So, at the financial level at least, Pachter's comment makes a whole lot of sense. If Nintendo launches an Apple Arcade-like service like iOS and Android tomorrow that gives you access to a large selection of ancient NES games, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and SNES games, the rise will be it's a great game; millions will literally be done overnight using content that has cost the company inaction – with no gaming overhead, of course. ValueAct looks similar, given its views on Nintendo challenging other subscription services, such as Netflix and Disney +. While the past creates its own unique content, it relies he avily on movies and TV shows licensed from other companies, so Disney is likely to make an accurate comparison here. Like Nintendo, it has a back catalog of envious entertainment world content, as well as its Disney + service – while still finding its feet – a neat sketch of how Nintendo can approach this request.
Still, if it's so easy, why isn't Nintendo doing this in creations? We won't talk about what's going on inside the Kyoto corporate board, but we can assume that the cost is currently producing profit. Switch owners will sign up for Nintendo switchch Online regardless of what the free offers are based on games, because they want to play online and save the clouds. A small selection of NES and SNES titles is just a bonus. So, Nintendo switchch Online is not Nintendo's answer to Apple Arcade, because it fails to provide the depth and breadth of content needed – it's about getting users to pay for tasks rather than content, and that's okay. After all, both Sony and Microsoft do the same with their (or Microsoft's) subscription options Game Pass is close to what Pachter and ValueAct are talking about).
Nintendo that offers its games on phones at a monthly premium has no negative impact on its console business – the opposite, in fact.
One of the problems that Nintendo has with this kind of business idea is that its main fans see that anything is missing directly related to Nintendo's home console is somehow bad or slow; it is a distraction that should be ignored or avoided. The lukewarm response from early Nintendo fans to smartphone company games is proof of this; while Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes are commercially successful, there is a clear feeling that the people who play them are not actually the same people playing Switch – and that's an important consideration when approaching the concept of a smartphone subscription service.
Nintendo that offers its games on phones for a month doesn't need to have a negative impact on its console business – the opposite, in fact. The revenue generated may have been returned to Nintendo's main interest – the game's development – which would have been good news only for switch owners. And it can't & # 39; t make it worse & # 39; the market, however, many people signing up for the service via their phone will have no effect on the games (and, if they choose to buy one in the future, such a service might convince them to do the Switch). That extra money Nintendo couldn't afford. Touchscreen controls – one of the disadvantages that hardcore players often throw in smartphone games – are not considered as problematic by experienced iOS and Android users, so that should not be considered an obstacle to entry, even though (otherwise, it will be considered) the company seems to be considered how to overcome potential obstacles – if this patent from 2018 comes to fruition, at least).
It's also important to remember that we live in a world that is becoming more and more concerned when it comes to technology. Services like Netflix work on phones, tablets, laptops, game consoles (it doesn't change at the time of writing) and televisions; for the future of digital, the Hardware you use to use content is probably the most important part of the puzzle as service providers want you to access their services in any program No reason, though, that Nintendo couldn't lay down the basics of its subscription service to smartphones before expanding the platform to switch, which – lest we forget – was built with mobile hardware. That way, Nintendo introduces a smartphone service that could eventually benefit home console owners.
Whatever happens over the next few years, it is clear that the entertainment world is evolving into subscription services as digital distribution becomes. The music is already broken, and you can argue that movies and TV already exist approx There. The game's stream may be interrupted right now – and of course, given the copy that Google Stadia has been releasing – but the idea of being allowed access to a large catalog of downloadable games (rather than distribution), which you can make to Apple Arcade, is a logical proposition in the past. Like, though, physical distribution is on the way and big library companies like Nintendo are pretty good at figuring out how to monetize their existing assets – and there's a good chance they can do this in the way that their main video game business does.
Thanks to Fun Mobile by providing the IPhone SE 2020 used in photos of this feature.