Back in the dark days of video games we had yet to find the majesty that was Sonic, there was one company who stood among others and said we shall not go quietly into the night! That company was Nintendo, the Japanese toy manufacturer who turned to video games under the guidance of their master and commander Hiroshi Yamauichi. The American video games market was dying a slow death of stagnation at the time but the release of the Nintendo entertainment system and the super Nintendo entertainment system brought the American market back to life and spelled prosperity for the giants of Japanese gaming.

Is Nintendo slowly fading away?

Nintendo has faced its stiffest competition since Sonic slipped on those red shoes to save the bunnies from a mental deranged scientist with at best questionable credentials. This competition has come in the form of the least likely – a mobile phone. When Steve Jobs gave the world an amazingly overpriced annoying paperweight that sometimes does what you ask and rings people, he gave the mobile phone market a jolt in the arm and also opened the door to a wide world of high spec mobile gaming. Suddenly, Android games were able to be played on a phone while you waited for your croissant and double mochachino, you didn’t need to lug a DS around to play Snake, Tetris or Bowling. You just needed to download it onto your phone.

Nintendo – a stubborn company who just doesn’t want thrive again

It was a sudden burst of creativity and competition which would take a portion of the mobile games industry Nintendo had owned for over a decade. The DS and 3DS now had to compete with every $200 smart phone on the block. These games suddenly filled part of the market share Nintendo had enjoyed and the initial rush to game via specialised gamer phones and android systems scare many, probably even at Nintendo but Nintendo held firm and stood its ground.

There are many voices out there that would ask why Nintendo hasn’t decided to port its games to smartphones and try to capitalise on the market which has taken up a portion of the gaming market share. It seems rational when you think about it, sell off old titles no longer making profit such as SNES games on Android systems so that Nintendo can have a portion of the market share of the new mobile gaming niche and profit will ensue for little initial input.

Why is Nintendo refusing to make games for iOS and Android?

Nintendo has always been a games console maker, it’s always designed from hardware up with its own loyal exclusives and in house titles that will never be seen on another platform.

It’s a simple reason – because Nintendo is both a hardware and software manufacturer it doesn’t want to do anything to either that would jeopardise the other. Hardware and software, so console and game together. If it released even some of the old catalogue for Android games then it would be allowing people to use Nintendo software without buying the hardware. Nintendo would be shooting itself in the foot and destroying its own hard won and carefully crafted monopoly over lovable and fun games.

It’s not like Nintendo needs the money since they were worth 12 billion US dollars at the end 0f 2012, and there’s been no significant losses made with new products….just slow profits and break evens. If anything, Nintendo’s actually doing better than its two competitors Sony and Microsoft who have both adopted a loss leader strategy admitting defeat by taking losses on the chin for future gains.

Nintendo’s happy where it is and where it is includes a mountain of money, a mad Japanese laboratory where they get to play with gadgets and think up the latest gimmick for home consoles and a brand with an army of loyal followers that will gladly fuel the next war on Sega’s heir. Why should they risk that on a few measly dollars selling Android games in an already crowded market of Android games?

Author Bio:

The article is being written by Christopher Austin. He is a tech writer and blogger who loves blogging about latest tech and gaming. He is also in deep love with army games and love to play them online at Army Games 365.