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.
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