Bloomberg is reporting that Nintendo shareholders are growing irate with the company and its president, Satoru Iwata, after shares of the company hit a six-year low. Nintendo has seen slouching profits in recent years as mobile phones like the iPhone and other devices like the iPod touch have quickly become must-have portable gaming devices. Shareholders say the company should begin porting its catalog of titles to devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Android phones, something Iwata says won’t happen as long as he’s in charge.
Nintendo’s attempt to push back against smartphone gaming — the Nintendo 3DS — flopped causing the company to cut its price by 40% in Japan. With smartphones selling more than ever, and a majority of apps for the iPhone being games, there’s no sign of smartphones as the new mobile gaming platform of choice abating. That spells bad news for Nintendo and other makers of dedicated portable gaming platform like Sony.
Another way out of Nintendo’s slump if Iwata continues to refuse to port Nintendo’s game portfolio to non-Nintendo devices would be for the company to acquire a successful iPhone game developer. That way Nintendo could at least have a presence on the iOS platform while keeping its classic portfolio of games and characters for Nintendo-only devices. Short of doing either of those things it doesn’t look like even a real life Mario can save Nintendo’s future.
Nintendo shareholders revolt, demand Mario & Co. on iPhones originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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