Puzzling rumor has Nintendo supporting the iPhone

by JC Fletcher { Jun 20th 2007 at 10:50AM }

Imagine an alternate universe where the Atari Lynx, with its awesome color screen and arcade Ninja Gaiden port obliterated the original Game Boy in sales. Then Nintendo tried to come back with a color system, only to be humiliated by the Neo Geo Pocket Color. That is the the situation for which this rumor makes sense.

Noheat.com speculates that Nintendo will release "a limited amount of content" for Apple's iPhone, in the form of downloadable $29 games. There is so much wrong with this idea. First, and most obvious, Nintendo kind of has their own handheld system with a touch screen. Second, Nintendo does not release games for non-Nintendo consoles. They licensed Mario and Zelda out to Philips for CD-I games, but they didn't make those games (and it didn't really work out.) The last time Nintendo made a game for someone else's system was pre-NES, with stuff like Donkey Kong and Popeye. And back then, they didn't have a console out to compete with Coleco, Mattel, and Atari.

Here's the weirdest part of all: Noheat claims that "The logic is that because the licensed games will be exclusive and cater to an older audience they should not intrude into Nintendo's existing markets." Brain Age says hello! Of course, having said all that, now we're quite certain Nintendo will make the announcement later today, just to make us look foolish!

[Via Dot Matrix With Stereo Sound, TUAW]

Tags: apple, ds, iphone, nintendo, phone, rumor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jared @ Jun 20th 2007 10:59AM

Sure, and Ken Kutaragi will announce tomorrow that he's leaving the board at Sony (he kept that position) to take a job as lead developer/engineer at Nintendo.

I dunno. I just don't see it happening.

o01Frog @ Jun 20th 2007 11:47AM

While I think it's unlikely, I wouldn't dismiss it immediately. I had a more eloquent post about this on TUAW's write up, but I'll condense it a bit here:

I think the iPhone will get more of the 30+ crowd in America than the DS has so far, and with Nintendo's current goal of bringing games to a wider audience, it's not a bad idea to offer Touch! Generation type games on the iPhone.

While I'm sure they would prefer all those people to buy a DS and the Brain Age cartridge instead, Apple doesn't have a 'kiddie' image to battle in the States like Nintendo does, and there are probably enough people who wouldn't mind getting a copy of Brain Age, but *really* don't want to be seen carrying around a DS, to make this a profitable endeavor for Nintendo.

hvnlysoldr @ Jun 20th 2007 12:18PM

I'm not springing for a $100 trak phone which would help immensely at work, so I am in no way interested in iPhone that doesn't have buttons and solely relies on an expensive multi-touch screen.

Herby @ Jun 20th 2007 12:24PM

Possibly the dumbest rumor I've read in weeks. Really, why do you even bother reporting such idiotic speculation?

haritori @ Jun 20th 2007 1:10PM

it makes sense in the fact that if they were to approach anyone for games for iphone nintendo would be best bet to get exclusive titles for iphone and not see them at some point appear on there competitiors consoles/phones/hardware!, microsoft or sony, nintendo would probly be the best bet to see this happen, even if they picked up with a 3rd party it would be costly to keep exclusivity to apple with the liceneces being owned by who ever makes these games, and sure apple probly woulod`nt mind the games end up being on a nintendo platform in the future as they dont really have anything that competes directly with them where as microsoft and sony do.

but sounds like crap to me in the long run apple could make there own games if they so choose to and i dont believe ninty would want games on iphone that they can put on ds. but ive heard stranger things on here come true?????????

Kenny @ Jun 20th 2007 1:36PM

This makes a *ton* of sense! I've read, and I forget where, that Nintendo is trying to get in bed with Apple. The Wii was possibly designed to blend in with Apple's design motif for things like the Airport Extreme and the Mac Mini. I've read where Nintendo wants to integrate with Apple to some degree. I believe Nintendo would want to leverage their brand's success with touch screen gaming with what is expected to be the biggest touch interface device in the States.