Nintendo gives in to 'free' with new iPhone, Android Pokemon game

An official, free Pokémon app (created by Nintendo) is coming to iPhones and Android phones this summer, Kotaku reports. Read that sentence again, and if you know anything about Nintendo, you'll know that this is huge.

In essence, this will be the first Pokemon game (and perhaps the first Nintendo property) to release on a competitor's platform. The is roughly translated from Japanese as "Pokémon Say Tap? BW," and it will rely heavily on music in a Pokémon timing game.

And did we mention that the game will be free. As in, cost no money and probably have to rely on either advertisements or micro-transactions to be profitable?

Wait, didn't Nintendo president Satoru Iwata just finish denouncing free as a bad move for Nintendo (but social is okay)--so much so that he proverbially hammered the final nail in the coffin in saying, "There are great examples of advertising and doing the micro-transactions, and several companies who have come up with that kind of system. But on the other hand, if you ask me, is this the system that can be sustained for the long time?" Why yes, yes he did say that.

Rift maker Trion wants Red Door to be Facebook for hardcore games

If you still think Facebook games haven't made a visible impact on traditional games, then look no further than Trion Worlds. The creator of hit MMO (massively multiplayer online game) Rift announced Red Door, an upcoming game development and distribution platform that looks to do for the traditional games industry what Facebook has done for social games. And, at least on paper, it sounds pretty brilliant.

Trion CEO Dr. Lars Buttler said to Kotaku, "Facebook catalyzed a ton of new experiences and we want to do that for premium AAA games. We want make them more live and more dynamic than the current model of social games where months go by and nothing changes." Red Door, which will be available to third-party game creators in spring 2012, will offer them a server infrastructure with support for billing, customer support and content management, according to Kotaku.

In other words, Trion looks to be the Zynga of the hardcore games industry through Red Door, a platform that sounds a whole lot like Facebook. Combining the HD graphics and complex gameplay capabilities of hardcore game engines with the ability to constantly and continually update games with new content a' la Facebook games, Trion looks to usher in the future of hardcore game creation. According to Kotaku, Red Door could be the end of $60 traditional game sequels like, say, Gears of War 3.

If anything, Trion Worlds is certainly onto something. As companies make millions (and see valuations in the billions) from free-to-play social gaming, traditional game creators have to do something to survive. And just as Unreal Engine 3, a widely-used traditional game creation technology, comes to Flash Facebook, Trion hopes to lure game makers through its big Red Door.

Do you think the future of hardcore gaming looks a lot like how Facebook games are distributed and curated today? Is Trion Worlds onto something visionary? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment