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Must Nintendo Make a Mobile Phone?
Hiroshi writes "Earlier this year Engadget uncovered a patent filed in 2001 for a Nintendo cell phone but as we all know, nothing came of it. Now CNET is highlighting the Nintenphone once more, stating that it must be built if cell phone gaming is ever going to get better. Interestingly, CNET Photoshopped a DS Lite with Android and a virtual keypad, and while this probably wouldn't be what a Nintenphone would look like, I can't help feeling like the DS would make an awesome phone."
Of course Nintendo doesn't have to do this. I'm somewhat shocked that a tech site like slashdot would be so woefully unaware that this problem has already been completely solved by Nokia with the N-Gage. If you check the reviews you will find that it is " A great multi-function device that plays games too!". So let's get with the times slashdot.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The DS already has VoIP.
In order to call someone using Nintendo's new phone, you not only need their phone number, but you also need their unique 15 digit code. This will prevent random phone calls from child molesters and guys named [666]SatanCock420.
Unfortunately the problem nowadays isnt the hardware nor the software, but the power supply of both mentioned above. It's a fact: Lion batteries are not anymore enough. Ppl who use their cell phone much know what I'm talking about. I've reached the point that I carry a 2nd battery in my pocket as if it were a spare clip for a gun... So imagine a phone that also plays games...
I can't see the DS being turned into a phone ... but the game boy micro's about the right size for a cell phone.
You just gotta figure out where the keypad would go. (and it can't go outside of the d-pad or ab buttons, because that'd affect how you hold it when playing a game)
If you made it thicker to add a slide-out keyboard, I could see it as a cell phone.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
You're making a mistake if you think that they couldn't get DVD playback on Wii in time for launch. The reason they pulled it is because Nintendo is made up of greedy bastards. They saw that demand for DVD playback would cause minimal blowback at the worst (has it caused any?) and it'd save them on the DVD licensing fees, not to mention actually developing the software or paying someone else to do it. So yes, Nintendo doesn't do convergence devices. But not because they can't, but because they won't. The difference being that they would be totally capable of doing so in the future if such a device looked likely to print money.
The Farewell Tour II
If the amount of regulation/hassle/bureaucratic red-tape associated with cellphones (read contracts / improper billing) disappears, then Nintendo might consider it.
As a few other posters have pointed out, Nokia's N-GAGE was somewhat cool, but didn't last. Nintendo is under no pressure to release a device with hand-held gaming and cellphone features. It's not a race yet, so why should Nintendo run?
That being said, Nintendo is company and has responsibility to be profitable for its shareholders. If a prospect is viable (possibly in the future) and potentially lucrative (yes if they are the first one's to market with a decent product), then they'll go after it (in the medium-to-long term).
Could you imagine what would happen if Nintendo put out a motion sensing phone. We'd have people walking around the street swinging that thing in the air, looking like they are going to seizure... And I thought it was creepy to see people talking to themselves via hands-free headsets.
The fact that X company should make a phone is indicitive of one thing: THE CURRENT SITUATION OF CELLPHONES (Esp. in the US) is MISERABLE. As technology evolves, we need progressive thinking companies (like Apple, Nintendo) to design better UI's for these devices, rather than backwards-thinking companies (Sony, Motorola) trying to leverage existing UI's onto new techology. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (for both types of companies). Also, having an assertive company make the phone (like Apple) means that the carrier cannot modify the firmware so that the default option when I take a picture is to have a print sent to everybody I know at a cost of $4 per print. Even RIM has conceded in this field, disabling GPS for Verizon so Verizon can sell VZNavigator.
You make it an easy to use PDA, but sell it as a game device.
So people playing games would intuitively start using it for other things. Capture the 12-17 audience and keep it going. When they are in there 20's you will own the market.
You are right, it would be very difficult to muscle into the current entrenched users.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I don't understand why cell phone gaming has to get better. Look at a mobile phone, it's in no way comfortable to hold one of those to play games properly. Then look at a DS. What, are we going to bring back side talking? Nobody wants to play the next Mario with a number pad, and nobody wants to have to carry around a cell phone that's larger than necessary.
Maybe if they don't just make a Nintendo Phone, but rather make a cartridge that you can slap in the DS to communicate with the cellular phone network and add bluetooth compatibility then THAT could be viable. At least if you get the DS Next, you can probably use the same cartridge and never have to worry about switching phones.
But if you're asking people to adopt a gaming platform that they have to subscribe to a monthly service to use, I don't think they'll go for it. As for plugging a game controller into your cell phone, that's something else you have to carry around. Part of what makes video game systems attractive is that the media is removable, you can share games, sell used ones, or rent them. It's also important to collectors and hobbyists that it's something tangable in your hands, the game. Part of what makes a phone attractive is its simplicity, unless you're just throwing money away anyway, and then you're not the target market for this. Or are you? It seems like a waste of money anyway.
Outside of Tetris, gaming + mobile phones probably shouldn't mix.
Twinstiq, game news
Nintendo views itself as a game company. They like to contrast themselves with their competitors that they are not making a home media system, a PC extension, they are about the games. And it's worked out very well for them. The only gaming unit consistently outselling the Wii is the DS. They've ramped Wii production from half a million per month to 1.8 million per month and still can't keep them in stock. Going into the highly competitive wireless phone market would be a distraction. I just can't see them doing that.
[Insert pithy quote here]
I bet we see some Nintendo iPhone games that take advantage of the accelerometer. Would fit right in with their current Wii control style trend.
Yes, how dare they take profits into account when deciding how to design their products? If not putting a DVD player in will cause minimal blowback, then it clearly doesn't need to have a DVD player. How does maximizing profits by not including extraneous crap translate into greedy bastards in your head?
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
well someone had to say it!
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
You mean like on the flip-phones that currently make up about 50% of the market?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
on one side and a phone on the reverse. Now that would be neat.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
And it really wasn't needed. Right now I have no less then three devices that can play DVDs hooked up to my TV. AA, PS2, a DVD changer, and an HD-DVD player I just got. If the Wii could play DVDs I think I would use as much as I use my PS2 to play DVDs.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
So few? I'm pretty sure the GBC had several hundred games released for it in America alone. In addition, it + Pokemon finally made portable gaming respectable to the average gamer. Failure indeed.