Smartphones Will NOT Kill Consoles

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says that "the spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles."

The mobile phones and tablets may be growing in ubiquity, but their rise in popularity doesn't necessarily mean that traditional consoles will cease to exist as a result, president Satoru Iwata has said.

"The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles. It's not that simple,” Iwata said during a news conference, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Iwata further explained that Nintendo must find a way to use smartphones and tablets to influence players toward the console versions of its games as a means to preserve its long-held business strategy.

“It doesn't mean that we should put Mario on smartphones,” he said.

While defending this decades-only strategy, Iwata said that short-term benefits that Nintendo might get from releasing its games for mobile devices is not worth the risk of harming its longstanding policy of offering its franchises exclusively on Nintendo devices.

Last week Iwata revealed that Nintendo was considering a "new business structure"  which will focus around smart devices, and is a result of Wii U's reduced financial projections.