Iwata: Nintendo games on rival platforms would only be A short-term fix
Over the last few months many have prematurely called for the decline and death of Nintendo as we know it. Those same people are calling for Nintendo to shift their franchises to other platforms. Let us be honest with ourselves. Nintendo would make a ton of money with their IP’s on other platforms? You can bet the left foot that a lot of Nintendo haters, who own other platforms, would jump all over the opportunity to play a Nintendo game on their platform.
According to Mr. Iwata, this would not be the long-term solution.
“If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit. However, I’m really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all.”
“What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software – by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other,” he said.
“And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world.”