Although Nintendo made it clear on multiple occasions that they will not port their games to other platforms, things aren't looking up for the Japanese company that's been slashing prices left and right in a hope it will sell more of its gaming devices.
Apple pundit John Gruber chimes in and shares his views about what Nintendo should do to keep relevant in a market it helped define:
We've seen how mobile killed traditional music, draining sales from retail CD stores. Console games appear headed for the same fate. Worldwide revenue for handheld console makers fell during the second quarter of this year, pushing companies like Nintendo and Sony into third place behind the first-place Apple App Store and No. 2 Android-based Google Play.
According to a joint report by research firm IDC and app analytics company App Annie, consumers spending on mobile games in the Google Play store rose during the quarter as Android games picked up 1.6 percent of the market between the first and second quarter of 2013. The Google Play store has taken steps to attract more gaming dollars by tailoring its service for developers...
Nintendo released their most recent financial results last week, and the numbers didn't look good. As suspected, the Wii U is selling quite poorly (the company only sold 160,000 during the quarter) and overall sales are down 1.9% year-over-year.
So with sales of its 9-month-old console already slipping, and no new hardware on the horizon, industry watchers are again calling for Nintendo to consider porting its library of games to, and developing new games for, other consoles and platforms.
But president Satoru Iwata reiterates that won't happen while he's in charge...
You probably already saw our preview for Control Unlocker, but just in case you haven't, let me fill you in on what it does. Control Unlocker is a new jailbreak tweak that brings an NES inspired controller to the Lock screen. Users can then use custom input commands to unlock their device.
Yes, it's entirely possible to use the Contra code to unlock your iPhone, though the controller lacks a Start (or Select) button. Have a look at our video walkthrough inside...
Is it game over for Nintendo, Sony and other handheld entertainment companies? That's the question as a report released Thursday shows consumers spent more on games downloaded from app stores than those designed for dedicated handhelds. Indeed, during the fourth quarter of 2012, more than 20 billion games were downloaded to smartphones and tablets. Perhaps anticipating today's finding, Sony announced Wednesday its new PlayStation 4 will support used games...
Late last year, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata went on record as saying the Japan-based video game company would not be porting any of its titles to the iOS platform, despite the fact that both users and investors were calling for it. He said doing so would mean "Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo."
Knowing this, it was interesting to see The Pokemon Company, a subsidiary of Nintendo setup to market and license the popular franchise, has just released an official app in Apple's App Store. It's called Pokedex for iOS, and it includes everything you'd want to know about your favorite Pokeman characters...
Listen up, parents. Your kids want an iPad. Don't be swayed by the Microsoft Surface commercials or the Nintendo Wii U chatter. No matter whether your child is 6 or 16, the iPad is at the top of Christmas wish lists for 2012, a new survey has it. According to Nielsen Wire, the top four out of five most-wanted gifts for children and teens bear an Apple logo.
Even more intriguing are the changes in what Apple products are wanted this holiday season versus last year. If anything, the trend can be summed-up in one word: tablet...
Nintendo hasn't released games for its NES or Game Boy systems in more than 20 years, but that doesn't mean people have forgotten about them. Emulators for old Nintendo games exist on nearly every platform imaginable — even iOS.
Until now, however, your iOS device had to be jailbroken to play these older games. That, or you had to snatch up one of the handful of emulator apps that popped in the App Store before Apple pulled them. But we've found another way...
There are few things cooler than playing old arcade games on an iPad, but playing them with on an iPad using a NES controller is certainly one of them.
That's exactly what blogger and DIY-er Paul Rickards did, and the results are pretty impressive, to say the least.
Using some LEGO and a little bit of magic, Rickards can now play iCade-enabled games using one of Nintendo's old NES controllers, just as those of us old enough to remember the golden age of gaming would have in the olden days...
Just read that title again. Perhaps a third time. Ready? Let us continue.
According to new research by Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, both Sony and Nintendo's battle to own the portable gaming market may well be over sooner rather than later, and the winner might not be either of the two gaming behemoths.
See, Flurry believes that the combined pair will generate $1.4 billion in gaming revenue for the year 2011. While that's not a number to be sneezed at, it is considerably lower than the last two years. It's also lower than the revenue Flurry expects the real competition to generate, with iOS and Android gaming combined expected to rake in $1.9 billion...
Nintendo reported a net loss of $923 million for the first six months of the fiscal year, revealing the drastic effect that the company's stance on mobile games has produced. Despite the fact that there has been huge consumer demand for Nintendo titles on mobile platforms like iOS, the company has been adamant that it doesn't plan on porting its games to mobile devices like the iPhone.
This last report was the first loss that Nintendo has seen in 30 years. This is believed to be caused by a number of factors, including the economy and rapidly slowing sales of Nintendo's Wii console.
No Mario for you! That's what Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is saying to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. Why? Because Nintendo refuses to make games for anything other than its own hardware. How lame.
After being pressured to hop on the iOS bandwagon by investors, Nintendo has said that development for the App Store is "absolutely not under consideration."