Engadget is pretty on point when it comes to Nintendo's retarded stubbornness on mobile gaming:
So what changed Iwata's (and Nintendo's) mind on moving Nintendo properties to mobile? "It would be a waste not to use these devices," Iwata said last night. It would be. So why has Nintendo not been utilizing them for years now? Iwata compares it to the maturation of television, and Nintendo's origins as a playing card- and toy-making company.
"It is structurally the same as when Nintendo, which was founded 125 years ago when there were no TVs, started to aggressively take advantage of TV as a communication channel. Now that smart devices have grown to become the window for so many people to personally connect with society, it would be a waste not to use these devices."
In so many words, Iwata and co. believe that smart devices have matured to the point of Nintendo engaging the platform.
Of course, for those of us living in reality, smart devices have dominated mainstream culture for the past several years. The first iPhone launched in 2007. And the first iPhone was far from the first smartphone; it launched long after smartphone gaming established itself. Sure, there are 50 million 3DS handheld game consoles in the wild; there are well over half a billion iPhones out there.
As evidenced by the laundry list of editorials over the years, Nintendo is entering the smartphone game late. It's just not admitting as much.
After all the horseshit Nintendo has done with their overpriced Eshop games, system locking memory cards, killing Snapchat, and deliberately crippling social interaction options, I can't help but think that being forced to properly compete with other mobile gaming developers is nothing but a net positive for gamers. Yeah the games may just end up as just a bunch of ports of old titles like 90% of Square's and Sega's mobile output, but even then they'll be put on a system which is a lot less restrictive and more convenient to use.