CURVED/labs' Nintendo Smartphone concept - the WiiM

[Junko]

No other company had such a great influence to our childhood with its games like Nintendo. The SNES, Gamecube and the Gameboy mesmerized us for weeks and months, exploring the secrets of Marioland and co. But with the rise of the new consoles, especially Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation, Nintendo had to beat retreat. Even worse: In the modern smartphone world Nintendo has zero relevance.

From time to time there are rumors of Nintendo expanding his game classics to other platforms, e.g. Google Play Store and Apples App Store. And every time the hype is huge. But still, there is no sign of SuperMario becoming an app. To let you an all the Nintendo-fans out there dream a little bit, we put our heads together and created a Nintendo smartphone. Why a smartphone? Because Nintendo is known for developing and distributing hard- and software side by side. The specs:

• 4.5-inch-Display with durable Gorilla Glass
• 67mm x 126mm x 9mm (with pads opened: 67mm x 196mm x 9mm)
• LTE, NFC, GPS, Wireless Charging
• Slider gamepad released after pushing a button
• Button-Design à la classic NES or modern Wii
• Control via gamepad or motion sensors
• illuminated homebutton
• 64 Gigabyte internal memory
• physical buttons for volume and power
• Camera with 8 MP and dual-LED, front camera with 5 MP
• customized Android with Wii-UI. Games can be played via Wifi frm the Wii and WiiU and will be streamed to the smartphone
• Seamless, console independent gaming with Wii and WiiU via Nintendo Network
• available in Black and White
• Wireless Charging

You're welcome, Nintendo. Now build that thing, please!

Read about it over here.

But what do you guys think about this concept? It's somewhat apt considering their dive into the mobile software market, how about the mobile hardware market?

Edited August 6, 2015 by Athena Cykes

[SuperAj3]

I love the idea of a Nintendo brand smartphone! The thing is they need a unique gamepad layout to not cop flack from Sony and their XPeria Play (which I owned and it was an awesome phone for emulators!)

There's the design they use which looks nice, but 2 buttons and a d-pad isn't enough for Wii U games. Maybe Wii though, provided there're triggers.

[Polkadi~☆]

Of any smartphone in the world, this would be the last thing I expected to be made. If Nintendo decides to actually make this, I'd be speechless.

The idea seems cool, but I don't think this would be all that sucessful if it was ever made. Though, I'd love to be proven wrong.

[Johnny Boy]

This looks pretty sweet! I hope it actually does get made!

[Tailikku]

if this comes out, I would definately get it

[Blacklightning]

Nintendo would never settle for less input than what the 3DS is currently capable of just because Apple somehow gets away with it - I'd sooner expect them just to throw a 4G card into an upgraded 3DS than to outright throw away slide pads and shoulder buttons. It's not to say these designs aren't neat in their own way, it's just something Ninty would realistically never compromise on.

[Candescence]

Yeah, no. These classic system-styled smartphones are just dumb, if kinda neat, but also completely impractical. A Nintendo 'smartphone' would need to have a full-on gamepad attachment, but good luck selling that to your average consumer, who doesn't want nor need it.

Nintendo should not be making smartphones, and smartphones should not replace dedicated handhelds as gaming devices, because fuck that noise. Smartphones are not viable for proper gaming.

[Willsy]

I think smart phones have the potential to be viable for proper gaming, moreso with Android which lets you hook up a wireless controller such as the DS4 via Bluetooth. However, it's usually down to developers or even the companies behind these devices which hold it back. Apple, for example, constantly pushing for all of their output to be proprietary means that the average user would have to go far out of their way to get a form of physical input for their iDevice. The issue with developers is that the consumer mentality that mobile is mainly for low-effort freemium games seems to have caught on, and not many developers will take the platform seriously. I have seen a few examples of mobile gaming being done correctly, such as Microsoft trying to achieve cross-platform parity with Minecraft, as well as the Dead Space and Grand Theft Auto ports to name a few. It's not very much, but I think that if more serious commitment towards the mobile platform existed, a phone or tablet could be used as a proper gaming device.

But Nintendo? They should really just stick to what they do; consoles. There's a snowball's chance in hell that they could compete with the PS4 when even the Xbox One (which is still selling well itself) is feeling the pace, and there is absolutely no chance of them even denting the mobile market. As Iwata said, they need to find a blue ocean, not try to play "me too!" and go after already firmly established audiences. 

[azoo]

To be honest I don't see why Nintendo going into phone stuff would even be much different than having a regular handheld console. Just add the ability to do 3G/4G whatever, make it able to use apps like Android or iOS or whatever and there you go. That's it. What's the big problem? Change? I can't imagine them making it mandatory, either.

That said, I think the idea of this phone is pretty cool, but it needs a bit more functionality. That controller thing that slides out on the back is gonna need at least some form of the shoulder buttons and the LZ/RZ buttons.. and they'd have to try to work in an analog disc / right analog nub like on the New3DS. Also, regardless of keeping an NES aesthetic or not, it's gonna have to have four face buttons.

But yeah, I think it could work and I don't see a problem with this ever being a thing. 

 

Edited August 6, 2015 by Azoo

[shdowhunt60]

Yeah, no. These classic system-styled smartphones are just dumb, if kinda neat, but also completely impractical. A Nintendo 'smartphone' would need to have a full-on gamepad attachment, but good luck selling that to your average consumer, who doesn't want nor need it.

Nintendo should not be making smartphones, and smartphones should not replace dedicated handhelds as gaming devices, because fuck that noise. Smartphones are not viable for proper gaming.

You're kidding right? Your average smart phone absolutely wrecks a 3DS in terms of hardware, and does it on a budget. I mean, seriously, have you actually looked at what specs a smartphone has nowadays? They get absolutely ridiculous.

[Your Vest Friend]

They weren't even limited to Nintendo's branding restrictions and they decided to call their concept something which would confuse the consumers even further? Seriously, it makes it seem like the Wii consoles are different clothing sizes as opposed to different platforms. 

[Candescence]

You're kidding right? Your average smart phone absolutely wrecks a 3DS in terms of hardware, and does it on a budget. I mean, seriously, have you actually looked at what specs a smartphone has nowadays? They get absolutely ridiculous.

Funny how you immediately jump to the conclusion that I'm talking about specs, because that's not the case.

Second of all? "Your average smartphone" also costs as much if not more than a freaking PS4 or a XBone. Especially the iPhones, which are horrendously expensive.

Thirdly? Specs don't mean jack shit when devs have to cater to the lowest common demoninator, which includes phones that are either on par with or worse than the 3DS. And there's numerous other things about smartphones that devs have to consider that dedicated handhelds don't need to worry about.

 

There are numerous things about mobile devices that require a completely different way of things working. You can't just transplant the way dedicated gaming handhelds work into the mobile space, because regular mobile users will just end up thinking it's a terrible mobile device. And trying to compromise on that front will just make it a crappier gaming device.

Again, mobile devices have numerous inherent problems that prevent them from being serious gaming devices. Even the best ports will be crippled by the limited control options (and gamepad peripherals are niche at best, so users who don't care about those will crucify any developer who doesn't cater to touchscreens), the app stores are a wild west, the market is a race to the bottom (and God forbid that you actually price your game above 99 cents, because mobile users are utterly spoiled), F2P is all over the place, and at this point, it's going to be extremely difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, if that's even possible.

tl;dr: Mobile gaming is more or less crippled by the reality that they need to be played on fucking phones, as always.

Edited August 6, 2015 by Candescence

[Tornado]

Pretty awful design, honestly. A double sliding mechanism (already likely an impossible sell in the current market) and the best they could come up with to justify it is four buttons and a D-Pad? 

[Salamander]

Cool though the concept is, the main thing I'm expecting from Nintendo's eventual mobile games is for them to actually have controls built for a mobile device.  They won't want them cannibalising their consoles (or vice-versa).

[Phos]

Pretty awful design, honestly. A double sliding mechanism (already likely an impossible sell in the current market) and the best they could come up with to justify it is four buttons and a D-Pad? 

Only two buttons. 

And Nintendo is getting into making apps with those DNa people or whoever it was. 

 

[Blacklightning]

Only two buttons. 

There's the design they use which looks nice, but 2 buttons and a d-pad isn't enough for Wii U games.

There's another model shown with four. You'd know that if you watched more than the thumbnail. >_>

[Candescence]

That's still not enough, honestly. Six face buttons, two trackpads, two shoulders, two triggers, two grip buttons, start, select and a touchpad/touchscreen is the bare fucking minimum I expect for a gamepad these days.

I'm being half-serious, I know, but that would pretty much be my dream gamepad.

[LunarEdge]

Yea, I know this is a "concept" but it doesn't leave much to the imagination. I rather Ninty integrate whatever they r trying to do into an already popular OS like Android and work off of that. I am content with my Samsung phone and would rather invest more into the already well established Android OS then jump into a new OS

[Tornado]

A reskinned/themed Android is still Android.

 

[SuperAj3]

There's another model shown with four. You'd know that if you watched more than the thumbnail. >_>

Ahh. I'm referring to the design Athena shared here. I saw another one being shared on facebook, but that had no buttons at all and was just a smartphone. I guess it depends? Knowing Nintendo, they'd make something like the circle pad pro that slots onto your phone, and it has all the necessary buttons.

[LunarEdge]

A reskinned/themed Android is still Android.

 

did I miss something then? Is this concept based off of Android OS?

[Junko]

did I miss something then? Is this concept based off of Android OS?

They did say so.

• customized Android with Wii-UI. Games can be played via Wifi frm the Wii and WiiU and will be streamed to the smartphone

[LunarEdge]

 

They did say so.

Oh, than my bad for missing that.