Nintendo developing a new “health platform” to help keep the company afloat

Nintendo has been adamant about staying far away from the smartphone and wearables space despite sluggish sales. President Satoru Iwata has even taken a five month 50% pay cut, and the board a 20-30% cut, to keep the company afloat. There also have been plans in the works to turn the tables, though they are far from what anyone has expected.

Paging Dr. Mario. Nintendo’s big plan for the future isn’t mobile games — it’s boosting your “quality of life.” At a briefing for investors and the media held on Thursday morning, Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata outlined the company’s plan to create a third platform to sit alongside its Wii U and Nintendo 3DS game machines. “What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people’s [quality of life] in enjoyable ways,” Iwata said. It’ll run software in the vein of Wii Fit and Brain Age, the self-help applications that were such a big hit for Nintendo on its Wii and DS platforms. Nintendo sold over 40 million copies of the Wii Fit games and over 33 million copies of the Brain Age games.