A new job posting for a Game Technologies Research and Development Engineer and Scientist at Nintendo European Research and Development (NERD) would appear to indicate that Nintendo is working on cross-generation and next-generation platforms, reports VGChartz.
Whereas both of Nintendo’s chief console competitors, Sony and Microsoft, tend to release new consoles in the same timeframe, resulting in direct competition, Nintendo’s releases have historically fallen in between these launches. With the Switch first releasing in 2016, the development of a new console has long been theorised, with rumours pointing to a potential release later this year.
Likewise, while Sony and Microsoft have a long history of making many of their first-person IPs available across platforms, Nintendo has long made its consoles the exclusive home of franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and Mario. As such, it’s unlikely that the company is breaking old trends, pointing to mobile as a likely focus of the research.
The future of Nintendo?
Notably, NERD has been responsible for emulating Nintendo’s legacy titles. While this could point to the company planning on taking the Nintendo Switch Online architecture to its new console, it’s also possible that some of the company’s previous titles may be making to move to mobile, which arguably represents a new market. While the company is certainly no stranger to bringing its franchises to phones, these have tended to be mobile exclusive titles as opposed to straight ports.
With the ever-increasing power and profile of phones as a gaming platform, could this job posting involve bringing some of Nintendo’s hits to mobile platforms? That remains unclear, but with the job posting specifically pointing to cross-platform development, mobile remains the top contender.
Despite this, it should be noted that while Sony and Microsoft are both increasing their footprint in the mobile market, Nintendo has openly stated that it sees mobile primarily as a means to advertise its console offerings. Most recently, Super Mario Run director Shigeru Miyamoto stated that phones “will not be the primary path of future Mario games”, praising the platform’s ability to expand the series’ audience while criticising the generic nature of mobile games. As such, while mobile stands as the most likely recipient of Nintendo’s attention outside of its own consoles, it’s unlikely that it will achieve the level of attention it arguably deserves.
We listed Nintendo as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
