Nintendo president explains why we’ll never see an official Mario game in the App Store

Nintendo released their most recent financial results last week, and the numbers didn’t look good. As suspected, the Wii U is selling quite poorly (the company only sold 160,000 during the quarter) and overall sales are down 1.9% year-over-year.

So with sales of its 9-month-old console already slipping, and no new hardware on the horizon, industry watchers are again calling for Nintendo to consider porting its library of games to, and developing new games for, other consoles and platforms.

But president Satoru Iwata reiterates that won’t happen while he’s in charge…

Speaking to CVG (via DaringFireball) Iwata said:

“If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit,” he said.

“However, I’m really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all.”

Over the past few years, Nintendo has had trouble figuring out where it fits in today’s market of casual iPhone gamers and hardcore console gamers. And pundits have suggested that it start developing its software for other platforms to restore its fortunes.

But Satoru says that would ruin the Nintendo experience:

“What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software – by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other,” he said.

“And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world.”

As much as I’d love to play an official Super Mario Bros. port on my iPhone (not in an emulator), I have to admit that Satoru is right. Selling its games on other platforms, particularly mobile ones like iOS and Android, would not make a long-lasting business.

Just look at Rovio, who makes arguably the most popular games in the world right now with its Angry Birds Franchise—more than a billion total downloads. The company generated just $71.2 million in net profit last year, less than Nintendo does in a quarter.

So yeah, jeopardizing hardware sales to peddle a few games to mobile users might not be a great business plan. But hey, maybe Nintendo would be interested in making an iPhone-compatible game controller now that Apple is officially supporting them in iOS 7.

What do you think?

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The first PSP emulator for iOS now plays games at 60FPS

The first PSP emulator for iOS. While the initial screens and video looked promising, at the time, the frame-rate was really low due to some technical issues. Now, it appears that those technical issues — the lack of JIT compiling — have been ironed out, as new video has surfaced showing PPSSPP playing Wipeout pure at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second.

Check out the video above, which showcases Wipeout Pure running at a silky smooth rate. 

 

 

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How to create a makeshift gaming console with a jailbroken iPad mini, an Apple TV, and a Dual

How to setup the Sony Dual Shock 3 with an iOS device

Since Blutrol isn’t officially out yet, I will provide you with a high level overview of what is required in order to start gaming using your Sony Dual Shock controller. I can always come back later and create a new post with additional details, or update this post in the comments if you have questions or concerns. Please refer to the video often, as each step is basically covered in the video.

 

 

Step 1: Install Blutrol 3.0 on your jailbroken device. (coming soon)

Step 2: Install SixPair on your desktop computer. (coming soon)

 

 

Step 3: Connect your jailbroken device to your computer via Lightning or 30-pin cable.

Step 4: Open SixPair, and ensure that the app recognizes your iOS device. Make sure that it’s recognizing the correct iOS device as well.

Step 5: Plug in your Dual Shock 3 to your computer via USB mini cable, and SixPair should detect your controller.

Step 6: Once SixPair sees your controller, click the Pair Controller to iPad button. This will copy the Bluetooth Mac address from your iPad to the PS3 controller so that the devices can communicate with one another.

Step 7: Open up Blutrol 3.x, and tap the Controller button at the bottom of the page, tap PS3 Controller, and then tap Connect. You should see Activating Bluetooth Stack, followed by Waiting for PS3 Controller. Once it says waiting, unplug the USB mini cable from the PS3 controller. The pairing process will then continue for a bit and then take you back a page indicating its completion. There should only be one solid red light on your Dual Shock at this point. if not, you might want to use a straight pin to press the reset button on the bottom of your controller.

Step 8: Close out of Blutrol, load up a game with on screen controls, and take a screenshot of the game in progress with the on screen controls on screen.

Step 9: Reopen Blutrol, and press the + sign in the upper right-hand corner to add a new game. Tap game to select your game from the list. Tap the screen orientation of your screenshot, in my case above, landscape, and select the screenshot you just took. Tap Add, select your PS3 controller, select the same orientation as you selected before (landscape in my example).

Step 10: Now you will see a page with a bunch of Dual Shock 3 buttons on top of your screenshot. Orientate those buttons so that they match up with the touch screen buttons for your game. You can use a two-finger pinch to adjust the size of the d-pad and analog sticks. You can always go back in here and readjust things, as it takes some practice to get just right with each game you setup.

Step 11: Once you’re complete, tap Done, close out of Blutrol, and open your game. You should now be able to control the elements of the game that feature the on screen controls using your Dual Shock 3 controller.

This process may sound a bit difficult or convoluted, but it’s not. Once you try it, going back through the process again is a piece of cake. If you’re a gamer, it’s well worth your time to dedicate 30 minutes or so to get this setup.

What do you think about the possibility of creating your own makeshift Apple console? Remember, if you decide to do this, and you want to take the Apple TV route, you don’t necessarily have to use an iPad. An iPhone would suffice, because you wouldn’t have to worry about looking at the small screen, you’d be looking at the television.

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Readdle releases free version of ‘Calendars’ for iOS

If you’ve ever perused through the Productivity section of the App Store, chances are you’ve come across one of Readdle’s apps. Titles like Documents, Scanner Pro and Printer Pro are staples in the category.

The firm also has a popular calendar app, called ‘Calendars,’ which it has rebranded today to ‘Calendars+.’ It did this to make room for a new free version of the app, which includes many of its major features…

Readdle describes Calendars as “ the most elegant and easy to use calendar application available on the App Store.” And it works with both Google and iOS accounts, allowing you to manage them from one place.

Here are some of the features that it says sets Calendars apart from others:

-Application Interface 
It is clean, agile and focused on your productivity. 

-Drag & Drop for events 
You can move and change the duration of your events in a Day, Week or Month view with Drag & Drop. Just tap and hold on the event to activate it. 

-Special Keyboards 
Appointment time and reminders can be defined twice faster than in the built-in iOS calendar, all thanks to custom keyboards. 

-The fastest Sync 
Sync with Google Calendar works really fast and keeps your schedule thoroughly. 

The paid version, Calendars+, includes all of the above features plus support for multiple event reminders, recurring appointments, event invitations and more—making it a great choice for so-called power users.

Of course, Calendars can hold its own with power users too. It allows you to create events whether you’re on or offline, set SMS reminders for your entries, and perform a unified search through all of your accounts.

I don’t really have the need for a third-party calendar app—I rarely use the built-in one as it is. But if I did, I would definitely give this one a trial-run. It has a no-nonsense UI, and a ton of features for the price.

If you want to check it out, you can find Calendars in the App Store, for both the iPhone and iPad, for free. Calendars+ is in there too, but it will cost you $6.99.

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Rovio to air Toons series through Angry Birds apps

 

 

As we told you, Finland-based Angry Birds maker Rovio continues to milk its franchise with the announcement of an animated series titled Angry Birds Toons. It’s premiering on the weekend of March 16 and 17 and today Rovio revealed that it will be airing the episodes directly via its Angry Birds apps, in addition to other more traditional distribution channels.

That’s a clever move considering more than 1.7 billion Angry Birds downloads across devices and operating systems. If they offered a standalone Toons app, I don’t think many people would download it. The first episode titled ‘Chuck Time’ will be airing in the Angry Birds Toons channel this Sunday, March 17, with a trailer for it included right after the break…

Rovio says that come this Sunday, users should start noticing a new Toons channel button in any Angry Bird app’s menu. This will provide access to on-demand episode streams, with a brand new cartoon airing the same time every weekend.

We haven’t seen yet, at least to my knowledge, a games maker launching a video distribution channel across all of its game titles on smartphones and tablets.

Here’s the episode 1 trailer.

The series will have 52 episodes.

Additionally, Angry Birds Toons will be distributed through select video-on-demand channel providers (like Roku and Comcast platforms, including Xfinity on Demand, online at Xfinity.com/tv and the Xfinity TV Player app), Smart TVs and connected devices.

 

 

The series will also air on select TV networks around the world, including on FOX8 in Australia, JEI TV in Korea, ANTV in Indonesia, Cartoon Network in India, MTV3 Juniori and MTV3 in Finland, the Children’s Channel in Israel, 1+1 networks in Ukraine, Gulli and Canal J in France, SUPER RTL in Germany, TV2 in Norway, Canal 13 in Chile and Gloob in Brazil.

In addition, Activision, Paramount Pictures, BlackBerry and Sony Pictures are partnering with Rovio at the launch of the Angry Birds Toons channel.

More information is available at the official Toons web site.

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