Nintendo Still Cold On Smartphones Despite Pokemon News

Despite the news that an official Pokemon game is on its way to iPhone and Google Android devices, Nintendo insisted this week that it has no plans to support non-Nintendo hardware with its games. Nintendo's strategy of creating games only for its own internally-produced hardware "hasn't changed and won't change," company spokesperson Yasuhiro Minagawa told Bloomberg. While The Pokemon Company is closely tied with Nintendo and its hardware, Pokemon is still an independent company, with Nintendo owning 32 percent of the firm, Minagawa said. News arrived this week that Pokemon Iie Tap, a rhythm game featuring Pokemon characters, would be arriving on smartphones in Japan. The game is not in the same genre as the most popular Pokemon games, which have players raising, trading and fighting their monsters. Nintendo executives have been critical of social and mobile gaming platforms, saying that the emerging markets, with their high volumes of low-cost and free-to-play business models, may threaten the value of traditionally-developed video games. Bloomberg also noted yesterday that shares in Nintendo rose as high as 4.9 percent on the suggestion that Nintendo could be making software for smartphones. When Nintendo reiterated that it's committed to its own hardware platforms, shares went back down. Analyst Mitsuo Shimizu with Tokyo's Cosmo Securities said Nintendo should look into supporting mobile devices: "The share movement showed how much investors are hoping for Nintendo to change its strategy." At E3 in June this year, Nintendo announced the successor to the Wii, the Wii U, which uses a tablet-style controller. The company also released earlier this year its new handheld, the 3DS.