Fans of Nintendo classics such as Super Mario Bros., and Zelda have long begged for these games to be made available on their phones and tablets. Nintendo, however, has been very firm with its stance against bringing these titles to services such as iOS, until today. Today Nintendo released a Pokedex app on the App Store that marks the first time a Nintendo property has been officially released on iOS or any similar third party service.
The Pokedex app is currently only available in Japan, and it is unknown as to whether it will make its way to other parts of the world. It costs two dollars and is based on a 3DS version of the same app. (For those who don’t know, the Pokedex provides a list with information on all the different types of Pokemon) Seeing that Nintendo is now beginning to make a profit off iOS with this app, some are speculating that they’ll begin to release some of their classic games onto the store.
While I think it makes sense for Nintendo to have released this app, I don’t think people should look at this as the start of a trend. Nintendo’s biggest asset is its catalogue of beloved franchises and characters and it is largely because of these things that people go out and buy new Nintendo consoles. If people weren’t forced to buy a 3DS to play Mario or Pokemon and could instead play these games on their phones, sales of Nintendo consoles would decrease drastically. This Pokedex app acts more like an advertisement for Nintendo’s Pokemon games and other products rather than an example of things to come.
With Nintendo’s new home console, the Wii U, being released in two days, now is not a time when Nintendo would want to devalue its consoles. If the Wii U struggles in longterm sales, as some are predicting, it is maybe then that Nintendo might begin to focus more on selling its software on other platforms. Just don’t expect to be rescuing Princess Peach on your iPhone anytime soon.
Image Credit: Scrape TV
