Nintendo Mini-Games Not Coming To Smartphones

Perennial rumors of Nintendo porting its games to smartphone platforms flared up again this week, whipping the interwebs into a frenzy and captivating the attention of the tech press. First reported by Nikkei, the story was quickly picked up by sites like CNET and The Verge, which wrote that Nintendo would stop short of publishing full titles on iOS or Android and instead offer free mini-games “designed to drive new users to Nintendo hardware” and “make players understand the appeal of Nintendo’s software.”

If that all sounds conspicuously un-Nintendo, that’s because it is. On Wednesday, the company made its position clear: while Nintendo is exploring smartphones as an avenue to advertise new and existing products, it has no plans to begin developing or porting content to Android or iOS.  

"Nikkei's article contains information previously stated by Mr Iwata during past press conferences, including statements which relate to Nintendo's willingness to make use of smart devices to promote our products,” Nintendo said in a statement issued to Engadget. “However during such past announcements Mr Iwata has also stated that Nintendo's intention is not to make Nintendo software available on smart devices and as such, we can confirm that there are no plans to offer minigames on smartphone devices."

It’s worth noting that the original Nikkei report is in Japanese and behind a paywall and many reporters, like Time’s Matt Peckham, were forced to rely on second hand accounts to cover the story. Evidently, something got lost in translation and Nintendo’s plan to advertise on smartphones turned into free mini-games. 

In short, Nintendo games aren’t coming to your mobile device and likely never will, so if you’re bent on playing Super Mario or Pokémon on your iPhone or Galaxy S4, you’ll have to keep relying on glitchy third-party emulators like the rest of us.