News Desk: Ian Livingstone Wants Nintendo to Go Third Party

“A whole generation of young people will miss out on their games.”

By Po-Yi Ho. Posted 06/06/2013 13:00 3 Comments     ShareThis

Eidos life president Ian Livingstone, speaking at the Bristol Games Hub, claimed “Nintendo should have their IPs on every platform, otherwise a whole generation of young people will miss out on their games.” First things first, I think Livingstone meant a whole generation of young “Americans.” Youngsters in Japan are doing just fine.

I do like Livingstone’s choice of words when it comes to having IPs on every “platform.” There has been a big shift towards mobile gaming, and Livingstone might have been suggesting that Nintendo should have their IPs on mobile platforms. I am completely confounded by this shift, since games on mobile platforms simply cannot compare to games on consoles, any console. Imagine playing Zelda on your tablet and on the go. You can’t.

Nintendo is a storied company in both hardware and software. Maybe Nintendo should start making its own smartphones, otherwise a whole generation of young Americans will miss out on their games.

Source: IGN

3 Responses to “News Desk: Ian Livingstone Wants Nintendo to Go Third Party”

  • 1244 points
    lukas85 says...

    the day nintendo makes games for another companies i will stop playing video games!

  • 1379 points
    xeacons says...

    Coming from a guy who refuses to make games for Nintendo, he’s got no room to talk. Besides, if kids today want Nintendo games, they know where to find them.

  • 1555 points
    penduin says...

    It’s obvious to anyone here, but must not be clear to the average schmoe (this Livingstone guy included) that by and large there is no separation of Nintendo’s games from its hardware.

    Super Mario Bros without a D-pad and two action buttons? Ridiculous. Forget about it. Wouldn’t be the same, wouldn’t be right. Ocarina of Time without an analog stick? Wii Sports without the Wii remote? Same deal. Yes, you could technically map all this gameplay to a touchscreen or a keyboard, but that’s not how these games were made, that’s not how they’re meant to be enjoyed, and they’d be missing a huge part of what makes them great.

    To Nintendo, a game isn’t just another piece of software, it’s an experience. It includes not just the routines for drawing specific shapes on-screen but the physical interaction with specific real-world objects. Maybe some people, maybe even a “whole generation” of people don’t understand the difference, since they were introduced to gaming on platforms where controls are an afterthought by comparison. But all it takes is playing a first-rate Nintendo title on its intended hardware. There is no substitute.

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