Nintendo: We Can't Deny Ubiquity of Smartphones

Nintendo of America executive Scott Moffitt has spoken out to share more details about the company's head-turning announcement in March that it was getting into the smartphone gaming business.

The company's long-stated stance was to release games only for its own platforms, but that's changing this year when Nintendo releases the first of its smartphone games through a partnership with DeNA.

Moffitt explained that Nintendo simply could not look past the ubiquity of smartdevices today. Not only that, but he said Nintendo hopes to draw in new gamers who may eventually decide to buy a home console.

"We can't deny the massive install base of smartphones out there, and some fans that aren't old enough yet to afford their own gaming console, perhaps for those consumers they can start to appreciate some of our content and build a relationship with some of our characters and our franchises," he told Examiner. "We feel it's going to be an additive to our console business."

Moffitt also stressed, as other executives have done before him, that Nintendo getting into the smartphone business should not be taken as a sign that the company is moving away from home console games. In fact, the reason Nintendo announced its next system, codenamed the NX, on the same day as it revealed its smartphone plans, was to demonstrate that Nintendo remains committed to home consoles.

"Normally, we wouldn't have taken that step of telling people we are working on the next system, but we wanted people to know we remain committed to the dedicated game device business," he said.

Also in the interview, Moffitt said the community reaction to Nintendo's smartphone plans has been "very enthusiastic." He also noted that investors are happy as well, considering Nintendo's stock price skyrocketed after the news was announced.

Finally, Moffitt reiterated that Nintendo has no plans to port its console games to mobile devices. Instead, Nintendo--under the direction of a veteran Mario Kart producer--will develop brand new games for mobiles.

"[Mobile and console] are two different types of gaming experiences and I don't think the approach we'll take is to just port existing content over to the mobile," he said. "That really wouldn't be doing justice to those devices and to that experience. It's a different kind of gameplay."

For more, be sure to read Examiner's full interview.