Nintendo Opens Games to Rival Consoles
For the first time in history, you can play Nintendo games on hardware that was not produced by the company from Japan.
In a new initiative, albeit limited to China, Nintendo has started distributing classic Wii and Gamecube game titles by means of Nvidia Corporation’s gambling tablet Shield. The device became available on the 5th of December this year in Mainland China, with three classic games from Nintendo:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Punch-Out!!
Which were only released around the world roughly ten years ago.
A Significant Shift for Nintendo
This move is a notable one for Nintendo, which has kept its games exclusively for its own handheld and home consoles since back in the early parts of the 1980s. The maker of DS, Wii, and Switch gadgets only very reluctantly started making mobile titles for third-party smartphones in 2016! However, thanks to China outdoing the USA as the biggest gaming market in the world and
so many activities going online, the pressure on Nintendo to release its titles to that mainland has been increasing.
Even players who generally limit their gameplay to the
real money blackjack now so widely available the world round are taking note!
Nintendo is Happy to Do It, According to Statement
Nintendo released a statement, in Chinese, about how happy they are to be able to have this opportunity to allow their games to bring joy to the vast body of players that China is home to. Plans are underway for more of their classic titles to be released in 2018, and visual upgrades are afoot as well. The statement went on to praise the Nvidia staff, and point out that high-resolution ports are in the offing as well.
No Broader Strategic Plan, However
A spokesman for Nintendo stated that the agreement is limited to China and the
Nvidia Shield, and is in no way indicative of any type of broader strategic change. He said that efforts to make the new Nintendo Switch hybrid console available to Chinese players would also continue independently of the current partnership with Nvidia.
Nintendo Not Available in China Until Now
Until now, most of the games Nintendo has produced have not been lawfully available in China, which has seen the popularity of Donkey Kong and Super Mario limited, although these titles are household names in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Mainland China is instead dominated by personal computer and mobile gaming titles like Playerunknown’s Battleground and Honour of Kings. The gaming market in China generated US$24.6 billion in 2016, compared with US$24.1 billion in the United States.
Barriers for Non-Chinese Game Publishers
There are still obstacles that non-Chinese game publishers have to overcome when it comes to releasing titles in China, one of which is the state censorship in place, and the requirement to establish joint ventures with local partners. The Microsoft and Sony Corporations have both achieved limited success since they released their consoles back in 2014, partly due to the decline in popularity of console gaming and the absence of hit titles like Grand Theft Auto V, which the government banned as a result of its violence and sexual content.
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