Nintendo wants smartphone game developers to port titles for its game console: Report
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It looks like gaming company, Nintendo is looking for a way to run smartphone games on its consoles.
According to a new report by The Japan Times that cites company sources, the gaming giant is believed to have introduced a porting tool or a 'professional-use conversion software' that lets app developers make their existing smartphone games compatible with Wii U, Nintendo's video game console that didn't do well and contributed in increasing the company's loses.
It further adds that popular smartphone gaming titles will help in increasing the number of gaming titles for the console and that Nintendo will focus its energies on developing new games in-house.
Nintendo has a lot riding on the Wii U, which has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.
It will be easier to port and adapt smartphone and tablet games for the Wii U as it comes with a touchscreen equipped gamepad.
Nintendo reported an operating loss of 36.4 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 31, much more than the estimated 12 billion yen loss.
It also declared at the time of its annual results, that it has sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles since launch, lower than what it had estimated. In January, the company had forecasted that it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the fiscal year, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.
Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, had lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million. The actual number of titles that it sold were much lower at 13.42 million.
Nintendo's success was rooted in its appeal to so-called casual gamers, but they may be the kind of people for whom smartphones and iPads are proving attractive alternatives. So it does make sense to get popular gaming titles on its platform. However, its not known how the company will transact with developers.
According to a new report by The Japan Times that cites company sources, the gaming giant is believed to have introduced a porting tool or a 'professional-use conversion software' that lets app developers make their existing smartphone games compatible with Wii U, Nintendo's video game console that didn't do well and contributed in increasing the company's loses.
It further adds that popular smartphone gaming titles will help in increasing the number of gaming titles for the console and that Nintendo will focus its energies on developing new games in-house.
Nintendo has a lot riding on the Wii U, which has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.
It will be easier to port and adapt smartphone and tablet games for the Wii U as it comes with a touchscreen equipped gamepad.
Nintendo reported an operating loss of 36.4 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 31, much more than the estimated 12 billion yen loss.
It also declared at the time of its annual results, that it has sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles since launch, lower than what it had estimated. In January, the company had forecasted that it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the fiscal year, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.
Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, had lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million. The actual number of titles that it sold were much lower at 13.42 million.
Nintendo's success was rooted in its appeal to so-called casual gamers, but they may be the kind of people for whom smartphones and iPads are proving attractive alternatives. So it does make sense to get popular gaming titles on its platform. However, its not known how the company will transact with developers.
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