The strength of the PC gaming market has (finally) convinced Japanese game publishers that, yes, ours is a platform worthy of attention. There is one rather big outlier, however: An outfit you may have heard of previously called Nintendo, which made it very clear in a shareholders Q&A that it has zero interest in bringing its games to the PC.
"We are aware that many consumers play PC games. However, we believe that the integrated hardware-software business is the best way for us to provide the surprises and new gameplay experiences that we want to achieve," president Tatsumi Kimishima said.
Furthermore, Nintendo released three mobile apps over its previous fiscal year, and all of them were "received extremely favorably," he continued. Games in the mobile market can do numbers that the PC can't even dream of, and it's also far more useful for introducing Nintendo's lineup to non-gamers.
"We believe that we can further expand our core integrated hardware-software business by providing our software on smart devices and increasing the number of consumers who experience our IP," Kimishima said.
And while it's not terribly surprising that Nintendo isn't inclined to risk cannibalizing its console sales by giving up its first-party exclusives, creative superstar Shigeru Miyamoto also implied that Nintendo doesn't consider the PC to be as lucrative a platform as others might.
"In the past I have seen a number of exhibition booths at E3 where dozens of PCs lined the hall for consumers to try out network experiences. However, at E3 this year, there were not many gaming PC exhibits or VR exhibits, which captured significant attention last year," he said. "I feel as if this environment allowed the attendees to see Nintendo anew as a company offering consumer-oriented dedicated video game systems."
Shame, that.
Thanks, Gamasutra.
