Some investors in gaming stalwart Nintendo are growing increasingly concerned with its strategy for the future and are calling for the company to consider smartphone platforms such as iOS as an alternative source of revenue, according to a Bloomberg report. The report states that the company’s most recent handheld gaming system, the 3DS, has been a flop thus far, prompting price cuts of 40 percent in Japan and 32 percent in the U.S. and a 82 percent slashing of its profit forecast, and that, combined with the company’s refusal to make titles for any products other than its own, has driven the company’s stock to six-year lows.
“Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry,” said Ohki, a fund manager at Tokyo-based Stats Investment Management Co. “Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.”
As noted in the report, Nintendo shares jumped the most in nearly four months after former Nintendo unit Pokemon Co. said it was developing a game for iOS devices, only to see the gains slip away after Nintendo denied any change in strategy towards outside platforms.
“They just don’t get it,” MF Global FXA Securities Ltd. said in a sales note that day, referring to Nintendo. “Sell the stock, because a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are.” While the company’s next-generation home console, the Wii U, also met with mixed reactions upon its unveiling, the company does have nearly $14 billion in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments, giving it more strategic options than some competitors.
