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Discussion Why Nintendo will (probably) not be coming to PC

Smash Kirby

Smash Kirby

Bob-omb
With the news of Sony bringing their heavy hitters to the PC marketplaces people are wanting Nintendo to do the same. Nintendo probably won't be releasing their games on PC unless they are forced to by some outside force, governmental, or Investor rebellion.

Nintendo should put games on the PC since MS and Sony are doing it

Sony and MS are software companies, Nintendo makes games to sell their console and always have. Nintendo has been and for the foreseeable future will be a Hardware focused company. It is why they have 4 versions of the Switch, so far, and 6 versions of the 3DS. This isn’t including themed special editions.​

It isn’t hard to get their games on PC

In addition to the last point a lot of PC port studios have been snatched up by other publishers or are busy with other projects. Nintendo wouldn’t be using a storefront like Steam unless they had DRM like Denuvo and Nintendo Proprietary DRM. Most likely scenario is Nintendo creating their own store akin to EGS and we wouldn’t know if it would tie into the Switch multiplayer with things like cross-play and cross platform saves.​

The Demand for their games is there

While that is true, with Pokémon Unite not being on PC, it shows Nintendo isn’t interested and doesn’t consider the market value of having their games on the PC. A friend of mine would rather play Pokémon Unite, a MOBA which thrive on the PC, than on mobile or Switch. I am sure that Tencent pushed for a PC version of the game at some point in development, though we don’t know for sure. Nintendo is outright refusing any water testing with their games and Pokémon Unite is the perfect game to test the PC gaming waters with.​
 
Red Monster said:
Why would anyone ever think that the Big N would put their games on PC?
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I have seen other people say that Nintendo is missing out on free money by not bringing their games to PC. There is a slowly growing demand for it as MS is going heavy into PC and Sony is dipping their toes and recently buying a studio known for doing PC ports.
 
Nintendo's strategy is different than MS and Sony. Not saying better, just different. They are positioning themselves different in the market. And they're all finding success.
 
Smash Kirby said:
I have seen other people say that Nintendo is missing out on free money by not bringing their games to PC. There is a slowly growing demand for it as MS is going heavy into PC and Sony is dipping their toes and recently buying a studio known for doing PC ports.
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It's not free money. Nintendo believes that what they offer will entice people to pay for a $300 and purchase their games at full price. Based on sales results, they are right to believe that. The argument for Nintendo putting games on PC is "Why make more money when you can make less money?". Sony is porting older titles to PC, long after those games stopped become system sellers and they started selling for $20 or less on PS4.
 
OP reads like a weird Kotaku listicle.

Nintendo releasing games on PC makes absolutely no business sense for them. Never has, it's unlikely it will ever do if things don't change a lot.

I'd argue it shouldn't make business sense for Sony either and they're probably jumping the shark here; but so far they've been great at releasing games no one wants to buy their current platforms for, so.
 
It would be legit funny if Nintendo, the company with perhaps the most limited option menus on average, released their games on PC.
 
Because they want to play Nintendo games but don't want to buy their hardware because they see it as inferior
 
Nintendo, kind of like Disney, is way more brand and IP conscious compared to Sony. Nintendo has cultivated a strong brand identity. Even people who don’t play any video games can easily identify characters like Pikachu, Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Link. But I think you would be hard pressed to find a non gamer who could identify characters like Kratos or Ratchet & Clank.

Even if there was some money to be made (which is debatable), Nintendo would never put their games on PC because they would be afraid of it diluting their brand. They have cast themselves into a unique role, Nintendo is really more of a brand than it is just a company that makes video games, and they are not going to cede that position to make a quick buck.
 
actual reason is hardware is a key cornerstone of their entire business and company identity. software sells hardware and all that. it's not much more complicated than that.
 
Yeah, it's obvious that they don't want their console experiences outside their consoles.
 
Jaded Alyx said:
I think they will.

A long long time from now, and probably only retro titles.
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Same. And it's not like it never happened. NES games got officially ported to PCs and so did their edutaiment catalogue for the SNES

also, heya Alyx! Good to see you here.
 
Tangerine_Cookie said:
OP reads like a weird Kotaku listicle.

Nintendo releasing games on PC makes absolutely no business sense for them. Never has, it's unlikely it will ever do if things don't change a lot.

I'd argue it shouldn't make business sense for Sony either and they're probably jumping the shark here; but so far they've been great at releasing games no one wants to buy their current platforms for, so.
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I was trying to attack the more common points brought for having Nintendo bring games on PC.
 
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Nintendo kinda marches to the beat of its own drum, even if you successfully argue it would be a good move for them, that doesn't mean they would be interested in it.
 
Two reasons why the won't:
  1. They make money with Hardware. So they want you to buy their hardware, because they hav games you can't get anywhere
  2. Their games are more often than not evergreens. They sell and sell and sell. And with that, see point 1
 
Of I'm not remembering wrong, part of the new vision when Furukawa took the role, one of the points in the slide was to investigate releasing software on PC. I'm not saying it will happen, is just that they have been considering it since the early switch days.
 
Mobile is one thing, but the reality is you have a better chance of Notre Dame football joining a conference permanently than Nintendo putting their games on PC.
 
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Would Nintendo games even do all that well on PC? PC gaming is my main way of playing games but people who play on PC are used to constant discounts and sales on PC games. Nintendo doesn’t do that as they see it as devaluing their software. You’d get full price sales on initial release, definitely, but it seems like the end result after their games remain full priced after a month is making it easier to pirate and run Nintendo games on your PC
 
enempi said:
Nintendo, kind of like Disney, is way more brand and IP conscious compared to Sony.
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I mildly disagree with that. Sony is definitely brand conscious, but in a way that's different from Nintendo - their approach (at least, right now since the restructuring of the company during the waning days of the PS3 and going into the PS4) is to focus on high production value titles for mature audiences and going forward further, that seems to be their priority. Their entire brand is now centered around titles like the God of War Reboot, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon, with the odd Ratchet & Clank, LBP/Sackboy or Astrobot thrown in there. Nintendo is about concrete IPs, Sony is about optics, is what I'm trying to say. It kinda makes me sad, because there's definitely Sony titles I'd like to see on PC, but it'll happen when hell freezes over the way things are right now.

That approach also is likely why Sony is trying to expand into the PC market* - it makes the IPs they're currently laser-focused on more widely seen. Nintendo are big enough on their own, they don't necessarily need that.

*and other avenues of entertainment as well
 
HockeyBird said:
It's not free money. Nintendo believes that what they offer will entice people to pay for a $300 and purchase their games at full price. Based on sales results, they are right to believe that. The argument for Nintendo putting games on PC is "Why make more money when you can make less money?". Sony is porting older titles to PC, long after those games stopped become system sellers and they started selling for $20 or less on PS4.
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Seriously, I would like to see the math of the people who say it’s free money. More likely than not they’re only thinking in terms of selling more units, even though there’s stuff like hardware synergy, branding, licensing fees, etc. to consider.
DumbDonkey said:
Would Nintendo games even do all that well on PC? PC gaming is my main way of playing games but people who play on PC are used to constant discounts and sales on PC games. Nintendo doesn’t do that as they see it as devaluing their software. You’d get full price sales on initial release, definitely, but it seems like the end result after their games remain full priced after a month is making it easier to pirate and run Nintendo games on your PC
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Nintendo games would absolutely do well on PC. Problem is, they’re already doing well on the Switch. One would have to demonstrate how selling on PC would significantly increase their profits.
 
HockeyBird said:
It's not free money. Nintendo believes that what they offer will entice people to pay for a $300 and purchase their games at full price. Based on sales results, they are right to believe that. The argument for Nintendo putting games on PC is "Why make more money when you can make less money?". Sony is porting older titles to PC, long after those games stopped become system sellers and they started selling for $20 or less on PS4.
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I'm arguing that Nintendo bringing their games to PC is something they don't need to do.
 
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Nintendo is the only first-party driven console manufacturer that still operates today, the reason why it survived compared to others similar console makers like Atari and Sega, is that they fully grasp the advantage it bring that model when used with a tight integration between hardware and software to provide unique values to consumers.
Nintendo reaps the benefits from the whole Nintendo ecosystem, in a way neither Sony nor Microsoft do and because said ecosystem is primarely driven by Nintendo's software, it means that anything that weaken the chance to sell the Nintendo integrated hardware/software products potentially harm Nintendo's bottom line.
Nintendo doesn't care if their games cannot be played on any device available, what they care is to be perceived, by a big pool of consumers, as special and worthy to pay premium prices to enjoy their offerings due to their uniqueness and quality.

Nintendo absolutely despise the commoditization of videogames.
 
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Why would they? They have their own approach and it's clearly working.

The people who say Nintendo is leaving money on the table are looking at it from a consumer perspective, not a business perspective. It doesn't make sense for Nintendo as a business to enter PC.
 
John_DF said:
Of I'm not remembering wrong, part of the new vision when Furukawa took the role, one of the points in the slide was to investigate releasing software on PC. I'm not saying it will happen, is just that they have been considering it since the early switch days.
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I think you're misremembering. Furukawa re-affirmed last year that Nintendo is committed to integrated hardware and software last year.
 
Oregano said:
I think you're misremembering. Furukawa re-affirmed last year that Nintendo is committed to integrated hardware and software last year.
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Probably, I couldn't find the source... Well, meanwhile the console business is doing fine Nintendo won't look at releasing on PC, but if the sales don't look so bright, they will put their games on PC before they touch any other other console.
 
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Little bemused at a couple posts here making it sound as if this is a reactionary thread. Not quite sure why some discourse would be shifting that way when this is a popular internet statement at large.

As some posters have eloquently put it, it's all about hardware. It's not impossible to think Nintendo has thought about moving their stuff to PC; they are a business after all, and their forays into mobile seem lucrative enough for them- but as long as their consoles bring in the bucks, I wouldn't think they would even experiment with getting one game out on a PC storefront unless somebody in particular is pushing real hard or it'll be indicative of a long-term shift.
 
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Nintendo games will almost certainly never come to PC. Such an idea runs counter to how they sell games to sell hardware, as others have stated.

That being said, even though it'll never happen, a PC storefront would be so much better than what we have now. I really dislike the subscription model of retro games, and the emulation scene has added so many more QOL features, enhancements, and new ways to experience retro Nintendo games. Online play with good netcode, randomizers, fan hacks, you name it. As it stands, the only way to currently experience these these enhancements is either piracy, or owning the physical games and all of the hardware needed to dump them, the latter of which I admittedly do personally have access to for the most part but it wasn't cheap or convenient. Would Nintendo ever just straight up sell ROMs and ISOs? Absolutely not, they control their IP with a tight grip and need people to buy into their specific ecosystem. But man, things would be so much better if you just could. So I get why people on other forums keep bringing up the hypothetical, because from an end user perspective it's a slam dunk.
 
Only reason I could see them release games on PC is because of China, making money on hardware there can be challenging but selling software is pretty lucrative (On PC). I think they already tried that with some games but I have no idea how succesful or serious those releases were. (Galaxy and NSMB are on Nvidia Shield or some Chinese program I think? Honestly vague on the details so I'm prob mixing things up)
 
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Feel like anyone who sees how Nintendo conducts their business and restricts their IPs could tell you they're not coming to PC any time soon. If Nintendo games start showing up on PC, you know they're in dire straights.
 
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them putting out stuff like the mario collection and it selling millions for a limited time just solidifies they don't give a crap about PC.
 
Aside from the deep business related arguments, I think Nintendo still justs wants to provide their brand of entertainment and experience on their hardware. And it is their hardware that enables them to deliver the experiences they want to deliver.
 
I can see this changing fast depending on how widespread game streaming becomes. If 5G and plans price become cheaper, it will be hard to justify having a dedicated hardware to play handheld when you could buy only a joystick to you phone. The same way will be hard to justify a console when your tv app + joystick is enough for playing games. They will need some crazy new gimmick(maybe some VR related) to make people buy a hardware to play games.

If they see themselves forced to start a stream service it will be a step closer to release a game for PC.
 
I mean no disrespect but yeah, mate, I don't think anybody is counting on this to happen. Only a very vocal minority of users will keep telling themselves this, and this is not going to happen. The Wonderful 101 might be the only time this has ever happened, sort of.
 
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