Big changes in nintendo: where do you want to go?

We are very aware of the renovation that Nintendo is carrying out when moving to the development for smartphones, which began with Pokémon GO at the hands of Niantic, and which will materialize in a Nintendo Switch that fuses the desktop and portable console.

These changes are not minor, since they imply that your income and efforts in hardware and software development change radically. We review it below.

To analyze the new strategy of Nintendo, we will assume a fact with which not everyone can agree. The Switch is going to be the desktop console that can be taken anywhere, while Nintendo's second development device, before the portable console, is now the smartphone. Therefore, we understand that the successor of the New 3DS in the absence of Nintendo to stop supporting it when the Switch takes flight in sales, is the smartphone and tablet (currently iOS). Instead, the Switch is the powerful console that receives mature games and can charge them as such.

Index of contents

The mobile bet

Considering the mobile sector as the successor to the "second console" does not mean that all the games previously developed for it are now going to target smartphones and their variants. This is due to the great difference between being the creator, owner and seller of a hardware (the console) and software (the OS and the tools to develop it) or not. Switching to the smartphone sector implies that you are no longer. You no longer design your own hardware or write your own software.

Complications

The economic implication is that you do not charge the user when purchasing the console or the developer when releasing a game on it. As for hardware, you no longer shape the device, and you cannot control the experience at hand (how many screens, what processing power does it have, how much battery, what buttons and where are they…). The same is true in software: development tools are no longer yours and you must stick to hardware you haven't made. This limits your creativity and may have a catch: When you develop software that must run on many devices and various operating systems and versions, problems arise.

The good side

The same implications, however, must also be seen from another point of view. The great mass no longer considers that buying a portable console of around 100-200 € with games that are around 30-40 € pays off when they can buy games that provide a similar or sufficient experience at a free price or an average of € 5 on devices they already use for other functions, such as watching videos and chatting. And, when they want to play seriously, they have the desktop console.

Not making your own hardware and software also eliminates a lot of headaches. When launching a product, everything must have a final form that you cannot change later, since customers who buy the console and the first games should know that they will be compatible with those that will be sold later. If your product doesn't work as well as it should, you cause users and developers a good problem. If that is handled by another brand like Apple or Samsung and you make games for them, if you make sure they work well it is a problem for the devices to be capable enough. Perhaps that is why, in the case of Super Mario Run, they have decided to only target iOS to secure the shot and perhaps when it is very mature to launch it on Android.

New console: Nintendo Switch

Luckily for all, Nintendo does not abandon the creation of consoles: it makes an all or nothing bet on the Switch. Nvidia's Pascal technology allows you to put in plenty of power at low power consumption to run in portable mode. The console, however, is conceived as a portable tabletop. When connected to the base, it will have sufficient power and active cooling to increase revs.

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This bet brings something different when combining various types of console. Desktop, laptop and tablet, we can play everywhere without sacrificing the experience.

With a single main device, there is only one software and online to maintain and there are no minor versions of games to be released for the portable console. The alliance with Nvidia allows them to provide tight-knit hardware with easy-to-use software for developers already working with other platforms. And, being a portable desktop, the prices of games will surely be around 60-70 €.

It looks like Nintendo is going to use smartphones as an entry platform to spark interest in its new console. This bet, which reduces the expensive consoles it has on the market to one, leaves the future of the company in the hands of the success of the Switch. We will see what awaits them and if the Nintendo desktop is hitting the front line again.