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Nintendo Not Interested In Making Games For iPhone Or Android

Despite the announcement of a Pokemon app for iPhone, Nintendo is not planning on making games for iOS or Android smartphones. Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa told Bloomberg that Nintendo will only make games for its own hardware, a strategy that "hasn’t changed and won’t change."

He also pointed out that, while the Pokemon Company is expanding the franchise to iOS and Android, Nintendo is only a 32 percent shareholder in the company, which makes decisions independent of Nintendo.

However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the company is still looking into the phone market, while at the same time making the company's concerns about the sector clear.

An article on Siliconera quotes Iwata as saying:

“If we had never considered combining a mobile phone and a handheld device, we would be negligent, but on the other hand, mobile phones are subject to monthly fees and we need to consider how well this would fit with game devices or how we should balance these aspects,” said Iwata . "Adding to this, mobile phone companies are generally divided by countries and when running a business on a worldwide basis, we need to consider in what conditions can we partner up with mobile phone companies around the world. Please understand that we are still researching these areas.”

Via: Gamespot

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Comments
  • a nintendo phone would be interesting but most likely not worth the money but they would probly make more money if they made small games on the iphone
  • Based on Phil Kollar and other reaction I've heard from EA's show today, this is a good thing.

  • Hmmm...this doesn't seem to be a problem with other developers. Put on your big boy pants, Nintendo. Stop making it sound hard and have one of your hundreds of employees look into how much it would cost, and how much money you would make and JUST FREAKIN DO IT.
  • Did anyone think they were going to? There's a reason xbox and ps3 don't have mario games. In other news my car is not going to turn into a truck.
  • Not even Super Mario Bros.? like, put the original game on the iPhone? dang
  • Way to go Nintendo.

  • How sad.

  • This might bury them in the long run. I would like to be independent as well, but phones are becoming much bigger devices than they once were. Sony and Microsoft have way better strategies when it comes to this, but they also are both already in the mobile industry.
  • That's ok, I can already play Nintendo games on my phone.

  • WHY THE FECK NOT? Nintendo used to dominate hand-held gaming, now it's like they're not even putting in the extra effort
  • NIntendo should buy out another 20% of pokemons stock so that they have a major say in whats going to happen

  • Well I think we can all agree that Nintendo is a very independant company, obviously...
  • they are missing out then

  • Just jailbreak your iphone and get a nes gameboy gameboy advanced snes and n64 emulators all the nintendo you ever need.

  • HOLD THE PHONE!!!! THERES A POKEMON APP ON THE IPHONE!?!?! I NEED TO GET THIS NOW lol
  • why do they need nintendo apps anyway? isn't their nintendo systems popular enough? if thats the case than xbox could probably make an app!
  • Nintendo has their own consoles, why would they want to make cell phone games?

  • Makes sense.

  • I can't see any new Nintendo games on Android devices in the future.

  • Nintendo has no interest in making anything that isn't made by...Nintendo. Big surprise, this is not.

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