Remember back when the GameCube was trailing behind its competition, and people thought the company would go the SEGA route, focusing purely on software? Well, those pre-Wii days are back again, with respected industry chap Bing Gordon ringing the death-knell for Nintendo’s hardware business.
“I think Nintendo’s already on track to become primarily a software company,” the former EA COO told GI.biz. “We saw that with Sega back in the day; Sega made some missteps and became primarily a software company. Nintendo hasn’t really made missteps, Nintendo probably has better creative talent and better leadership now than Sega did. It’s got the most robust business model, the best creative talent; Miyamoto’s still the best in the business.
“Apple’s most directly competitive with Nintendo. So far, when Miyamoto makes a perfect game, in his career he makes games worth $200 — it’s worth buying a system for. I think the handheld is going to be under a lot of pressure. I can imagine a day when Nintendo wonders — and maybe it’s generational change — when Nintendo wonders if they ought to take some of their best games and make them apps.”
I think it would behoove Nintendo, and the other platform holders, to take advantage of mobile gaming in a cooperative, rather than competitive way. I don’t know about almost abandoning hardware as Bing suggests, but Nintendo could make a killing if it put some quality iOS apps out there.
The only thing stopping it is the thing that stops a lot of good gaming ideas … pride.
