There have been quite a few rumors involving a Nintendo phone. As we all know, something like that has never hit the market.
Today we bring you the story that something like that could’ve happened if only Nintendo’s management was smarter. To be fair, they made tons of money with the DS, but if you look where the portable gaming is heading, you can clearly see the death of a dedicated gaming device.
According to an article on PocketGamer, Nokia and Nintendo held talks about a Nintendo phone back in 2000s. The R&D efforts were located at Nintendo’s Japanese HQ and the concept device was taken to the company’s board of directors for approval. Needless to say – it was rejected.
About at the same time, Nokia was working on the first N-Gage device, which failed miserably (as we all know).
So who won at the end? Apple with the iPhone and iPod Touch and Google with its Android platform. Honestly, I don’t see neither Nokia nor Nintendo having a decent role in the future of mobile gaming. I may be wrong and the Finnish giant could be working on some super secret plan to get back developers on board, but the market looks completely different nowadays with the iPhone dominating the gaming space and Android steadily growing.
The Japanese-Finnish duo maybe could’ve made it, but they haven’t got what it takes…
[Via: PocketGamer.co.uk]