Nintendo: iPad and iPhone not “viable” gaming platforms

With Apple’s vaunted iPad now on the streets, Nintendo of America president/Nintendo fans’ poster-boy Reggie Fils-Aime has come out with all guns blazing, dismissing the iPad and iPhone as not “viable” gaming devices.

While I’m sure Nintendo is more wary of the Apple pair than the company might publicly let on, Fils-Aime had a point when he told Kotaku:

“Clearly it doesn’t look like [the Apple platforms are] a viable profit platform for game development because so many of the games are free versus paid downloads.”

To support this, 1UP.com dug up this 2009 survey that suggested 85% of iPhone apps make less than $15,000; hardly the kind of big bucks that will attract and secure the all-important exclusives and established IPs that all new platforms thrive on.

While he was taking shots at Apple, Reggie also entertained me with a delicious/baffling games/food pun. What is it with high-powered execs at gaming hardware companies and food metaphors?:

“If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals depending on the type of game, (Apple’s) aren’t even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get.”

Again, probably true. Flight Control still rocks my socks, though.

See also:Nintendo chief thinks iPad is lame

[Kotaku, via 1UP]