Nintendo not abandoning 3DS, talk Super Mario Run goals & smartphone business

A portion of a Bloomberg interview with Nintendo's Tatsumi Kimishima...

B: Will you discontinue the 3DS?

TK: Thanks to our software, the 3DS hardware is still growing. So that business still has momentum. And certainly rather than being cannibalized by the Switch, we think the 3DS can continue in its own form.

B: What are your expectations for Super Mario Run?

TK: In terms of expectations, we all saw what happened when we delivered Pokemon Go. And honestly I was quite surprised by it myself. There's no doubt that more people are using smartphones to play games. And as this time we're using Mario, that's a very important intellectual property for us. And that's what Miyamoto's team is working on now: making sure it spreads out just as quickly as Pokemon Go.

So our expectations are big. And as Tim Cook mentioned, more than 20 million people have already registered to receive notifications when the game is available. In terms of the game itself, you can download it and play a certain part of it, and then pay a fixed price and then play it over and over as many times as you want without having to pay anything extra. And that should give peace of mind that kids can play it. And we're hoping that will help it become more popular.

B: What is Nintendo's philosophy toward smartphone games?

TK: I already explained the 3 points at today's investor meeting. Our main business is the hardware/software business. In addition, our smartphone business has helped sell a lot of our existing packages. And it has really proved our original thesis: by releasing our software on the smartphone, it positively impacts our existing hardware and software business. And that's precisely the synergy effect we were expecting. And as that has been proven correct, we have more confidence.

B: Where do smartphones and Switch fit into your ecosystem?

TK: There's an image of our future that our previous president painted two years ago: we had what we called NX—which is now the Switch —and surrounding it are our businesses for smartphones, theme parks, movie-related businesses. We're at the start—you will see various connections between our smartphones, theme parks, movie-related business, and merchandising that uses our intellectual property.