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Pokémon coming to Android and iOS, other Nintendo franchisees are out of the question

By: , IntoMobile
Sunday, July 10th, 2011 at 11:28 PM
nintendo

Anyone remember the significance of 9.9.99? That was the day Sega launched their last hardware console in America, the Dreamcast. Despite featuring an extraordinary amount of brilliant titles, graphics that were never before seen on a dedicated gaming device, and an onboard modem so you could actually use the thing to connect to the internet, most people didn’t buy it and it nearly killed one of the most loved gaming companies on the planet. How did Sega fix their problems? Simple, they owned the brands people adored, namely Sonic, Super Monkey Ball, and Virtua Fighter, so they brought said brands over to every console on the market. It may not seem odd to you now to see a blue hedgehog running and jumping around on a Nintendo console, but it was for many of us the first time it happened.

Now Nintendo today is in the same boat as Sega in the 90s. Their recently launched 3DS isn’t selling as well as they’d hoped, and for obvious reasons. The 3D feature is a gimmick, and most people do their mobile gaming on smartphones. Nintendo, being the stubborn bastards that they are, keep on repeatedly saying that their franchisees will never, ever, come to non-Nintendo hardware. That’s soon due for a change with “Pokémon Say Tap?“, a new title headed for iOS and Android, but it’s nothing like the Pokémon games you’re used to. Still, we hope that some day Nintendo would ditch their arrogant attitude and all of their bring their beloved characters to new platforms. There’s a reason Rovio is kicking ass with Angry Birds, they make sure it runs on everything under the sun. And while the Angry Birds brand is hot, Rovio sells various knick knacks such as toys and t-shirts to their most loyal fans.

It’s Brand Whoring 101, a class that Nintendo obviously skipped so they could get high under the bleachers and dream up the Mario universe.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Youreballsdeep

    Youre a stupid fucking Moron. Go “whore” yourself to a bunch of companies and see how you like it, douchebag

  • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

    someone is having a rough monday! hope your tuesday is better.

  • Stockstew

    Man having pokemon on my evo would be awesome

  • GregW

    smartphones are nintendo’s #1 competition for the handheld market. The 3DS selling slower than expected only gives nintendo more reason not to bring their franchises to the mobile market. The 3D gimmick isn’t going to sell systems, but mario, zelda, pokemon, ect sure as will.

    considering how well both the wii and DS have sold, i can’t wrap my mind around how nintendo is in the same boat as sega was in 99.

  • Anonymous

    It’s not the first time a pokemon game is released on mobile devices, pokemate by square enix was released for japanese mobile phones http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mate.
    And the 3D feature isn’t a gimmick, it helped me a lot in pilotwings resort and Legend of zelda: ocarina of time 3D. And if someone wants to play a quality game, he would probably play it on ds, psp or 3ds, not on a smart phone, the smarthphone app markets mostly have cheap rip offs and simple games that you can play for free on the internet.