In an interview with TIME, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata sheds some light on how Nintendo plans to make mobile games with DeNA and what it thinks about free-to-play vs. premium pricing.
"It’s even more important for us to consider how we can get as many people around the world as possible to play Nintendo smart device apps, rather than to consider which payment system will earn the most money."
- Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata outlines the company's approach to making mobile games.
In the wake of yesterday's announcement that Nintendo is partnering with DeNA to put its games on smart devices, TIME sat down with company CEO Satoru Iwata to ask him (among other things) about Nintendo's plans for making mobile games.
It's a good read that sheds some light on how the company is planning to approach mobile game development. Iwata told TIME that "development of smart device games will be mainly done by Nintendo," but that DeNA will be responsible for "developing the 'service' side of things" -- which Iwata describes as something that might encourage people to play for brief periods every day.
"We want more people to become familiar with Nintendo IP through Nintendo’s smart device game apps," said Iwata. "From a business perspective as well, we aim to grow our smart device business into an important business field."
Of course you can't talk about the business of mobile games without bringing up monetization; when asked by TIME whether Nintendo plans to release premium or free-to-play mobile titles, Iwata responded that "both can be options" and that the company will work with DeNA to design appropriate monetization systems.
It's an interesting conversation, one that you can (and should) read in full over on the TIME website.
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