“There is no guarantee that effective business models of today will continue working in the future.”
☆ NintendObs Event – Nintendo and DeNA Q&A.
Question:
In my mind, Nintendo is a company that has established a video game market where anyone, especially children, can safely play with its packaged game software, and the price of which is paid at the time of purchase. In regard to this safety aspect, how do you want children to play with the smart device apps that you announced today? On a different note, I see it possible for you to deploy your smart device games even in the countries where you are not able to deploy your console games. If you have an image of how you would like people to play your game apps and in which countries, please let us know.
Answer:
Iwata:
The Nintendo brand encompasses more than 30-years’ worth of accumulated trust that parents can feel safe letting their children play with our products – an asset that is very precious to Nintendo. We want to maintain this consumer trust and would not want to damage it in any way.
I just mentioned in effect that we might need to tweak the existing business models for smart devices. In fact, when people say the things like, “this is the way you can generate the largest possible revenue on smart devices,” they are just talking about the so-called common knowledge that can be applied today. Mr. Moriyasu mentioned that the world of smart devices is rapidly changing too. It will probably change even more going forward, and there is no guarantee that effective business models of today will continue working in the future. Looking at the transitions from mobile gaming to social games and from social games to smart device game applications, it looks as though the changes that took place in the world of dedicated game systems in 10 years have quickly taken place just within two years in that market.
When the trends change, the business models in turn also must change rapidly. And knowing that there will always be change, the two companies will carry out business together by cherishing the idea that we will offer something our consumers will thoroughly understand and accept, and with which many people, including children, feel safe to play.
As you pointed out in your question, it is true that we do not have established channels to market our hardware in new markets, the price points are considered too high there and that offering Nintendo IP software via smart devices can resolve one of these issues.
However, such ability alone will not resolve all of the issues, and for us to expand our software in new markets, we will probably need other tweaks in addition to smart device utilization.
Because this (Nintendo’s plans for new markets) is not related to today’s alliance announcement, I will not go any further into it, but the global spread of smart devices has great significance for Nintendo as we will have the opportunity to deliver Nintendo IP to an even broader range of consumers.
On your question regarding the specific countries in which we will release our game applications, as I just answered in the previous question, we will make the announcements when we have decided the formats for each country.
— Nintendo Co., Ltd.
DeNA Co., Ltd.
Business and Capital Alliance Announcement
Source: Nintendo JP.
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