Nintendo president Satoru Iwata knows that his company could make fast cash by bringing its internally-developed franchises like
Mario Bros. and
Zelda to rival video game consoles.
But don't expect Nintendo to do that any time in the near future.
"If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit," Iwata
told CVG in an interview.
"However, I'm really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all."
Iwata told CVG that Nintendo has an advantage in that its software and hardware are developed in the same building.
Nintendo is adamant about keeping its franchises on Nintendo platforms. Company shareholders pressured Nintendo to jump on the mobile game craze, and bring first-party games to platforms like iPhone and Android.
When asked by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year about why Nintendo isn't taking advantage of the sweeping popularity of mobile games, he similarly replied, "If we think 20 years down the line, we may look back at the decision not to supply Nintendo games to smartphones and think that is the reason why the company is still here."
Iwata has a vision of where he wants Nintendo to go in the future, but the Wii U is still on the ropes. Nintendo's newest console sold just 160,000 units during the most recent fiscal quarter, an abysmal figure that was eclipsed by the original seven-year-old Wii, which sold 210,000 units during the same time frame.
