Don't expect Nintendo's mobile games at E3 this year

Nintendo may expect to have its first mobile game on the market before the year is through, but don't plan on seeing any hint of it at E3 2015. While the company is targeting five titles by March 2017, according to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata the annual gaming convention isn't the right place to discuss them. That, he said today in a Q&A session, is because E3 is about a very different type of play.

Instead, according to Iwata, E3 is more about "dedicated gaming systems," and so any chatter of what Nintendo is doing on phones and tablets will have to wait until probably later in the year.

One of Nintendo's key focuses, Iwata says, is creating games that get past that first fifteen minutes and still hold interest. Although the mobile app world generally sees a fast turnover of "hot" titles, he points out, it's in Nintendo's best interest to deliver a few great games that linger.

That, along with Iwata's comments last week that rather than flooding the market with Nintendo characters in iPhone games the company would be more selective in which IP it leverages, adds weight to the idea that these won't be simple ports of, say, SNES games.

While some have called for Nintendo to effectively deliver emulated versions of classic games with the controls restructured to suit smartphones and tablets, that has already been shot down by the company chief.

Such a move "would not match the play styles of smart devices," he cautioned.

Instead, he outlined today, the "integrated membership service" which will effectively give Nintendo gamers a single identity across all the company's platforms will be used to encourage mobile gamers to pick up where they left off on a dedicated console.

A smooth transition between the two – such as between an iPhone game and Nintendo's upcoming NX console – with engaging smartphone titles rather than lazy cashing-in on the company's classic characters are the answer to mid- to long-term success, Iwata concluded.

SOURCE Nintendo