Ignoring the question of whether it's a good financial direction for Nintendo, would you personally like to see the company focus some of their development resources on making games for smartphones?
Would I like to see original ideas by Nintendo on a smartphone? I wouldn't say no to that if it were a game optimized for a smartphone and the price were right.
Would I like to see classic Nintendo games on smartphones? No, because trying to play Super Mario Bros. with touchscreen controls wouldn't work IMO.
In asking this, I was primarily thinking new games designed for smartphones, though probably leveraging Nintendo's IP to some extent. Pokemon for your phone. Stuff like that.
I wouldn't mind Nintendo making game or two for smartphones. It would be a way of testing the waters. Of course, I wouldn't want them to use their existing franchises on the smartphones. Just a no name game to see if that game would sell or not. If it does, they could turn it into a franchise on the 3DS/Wii U.
Putting aside the financial question, no, because I don't own a smartphone and I'm selfish and would prefer that they just focus on the two pieces of hardware that they are already supporting.
Sure, why not. I wouldn't mind seeing resources that worked on something like Nintendogs and Cats or Steel Diver working on mobile phone games I might buy as opposed to 3DS games I would never buy.
EDIT - that said, I don't really care one way or the other. But given a binary choice, then yes.
I guess I'd be okay with it. It could even be cool if they did something like, buy a GB game, and you can play it across all of your devices. That'd be pretty killer. Obviously, the best way to play it would be on the Nintendo platforms since they have buttons, but for some games it would be fine.
Where is the "don't really care either way" option?
In hypothetical scenario that Nintendo decides to make smart phone games, they won't release games with the polish we've come to know from them. Furthermore, the phones don't have enough buttons to make it worth the effort anyway. That means that they will probably release games like Angry birds which I don't really care for. I guess I could see if it they put out certain GB or older handheld titles. Then again there are about five GB games I would even bother buying. Link's Awakening and Metroid II being two of them.
I guess the only way I would really care is if they release GBA games. But taking into account that not even the 3DS has that option (why is Nintendo taking so long?) that would never happen. I guess I can't get rid of logic and just speak from a consumer's perspective, but things don't just exist in a bubble. If I were talking fantasy I would say I would like to live in a world where extreme poverty and violence did not exist, but that is just talking crazy.
I think it would be way smarter of them to keep making supplementary apps. The Pokedex was a good start but it was too ridiculously overpriced. What about official player's guides? They could include videos, tips from Nintendo developers, etc. Or what about an official Nintendo app? Get push notifications when a Nintendo Direct goes live. Check out the latest and greatest games. Get alerts on what new demos and content is available.
Why not make something like Steam's app? Browse the eShop and buy games, look at sales, chat with Friend's List friends, etc.
And while you're at it...maybe go after these companies that are already making money off of Nintendo franchises. There are too many Nintendo knockoffs on the iPhone. I don't know how Nintendo lets that kind of stuff happen (or Apple either....so many awful games).
For me a game is all about controls. For the most part games on phones sacrifice good controls. I don;t play games to waste time, when I do play I like highly addictive, competitive, or strategic sessions.
I think Meteos on my phone would make me very happy. Games like that I could go for. But Mario etc, no way.
Stuff like Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Pokemon, etc., don't require anything that even remotely resembles precise controls. Not to suggest that Nintendo should make the next FE for both platforms simultaneously or anything, but I don't know that re-releasing those kinds of games on a platform that handles that kind of control scheme very well, at something like VC prices, would be all that challenging.
No, never. Would very likely take over the handheld "pillar" much like the DS did to the Gameboy line (which I had no problem with because it was still a game system. A phone is not).
I think it would be way smarter of them to keep making supplementary apps. The Pokedex was a good start but it was too ridiculously overpriced. What about official player's guides? They could include videos, tips from Nintendo developers, etc. Or what about an official Nintendo app? Get push notifications when a Nintendo Direct goes live. Check out the latest and greatest games. Get alerts on what new demos and content is available.
Why not make something like Steam's app? Browse the eShop and buy games, look at sales, chat with Friend's List friends, etc.
Good ideas. Miiverse app is coming, should be the first big step.