Nintendo will develop iOS games itself: no porting, no remakes, or free in-app purchases

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata accepted an interview with Time magazine today, saying that Nintendo will develop most of the games for iOS, Android and other systems, such as smartphones and tablets, instead of letting its partner DeNA develop them, because DeNA's main experience is in services and will be mainly responsible for service-related operations.

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Iwata confirmed that people will not see classic Nintendo games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda in their original form on smartphones and tablets. Iwata believes that smartphones and the games on them are different platforms, so he believes that people also want to play different games.

"I think the main demand on devices like smartphones is for easy-to-access games that users can easily start and finish. This is different from the demand for dedicated game consoles. In fact, this makes us believe that we should not port games from handheld consoles directly to smartphones without any changes."

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Iwata also said that it is not yet confirmed whether Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of many classic Nintendo games, will join the mobile platform development. And Nintendo has not yet decided whether to adopt a free-to-play model, and if it does, it will be very cautious.

"Free-to-play with in-app purchases is popular on mobile platforms and was certainly considered, but Nintendo did not want to choose a payment method that would damage its brand image and, importantly, make it something that parents would feel comfortable letting their children play."

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Iwata said Nintendo's planned "online membership service" will start operating across platforms in the fall, including Nintendo game consoles, smartphones and tablets, as well as PCs, and will be managed by DeNA.