Nintendo signals online strategy shift Nintendo, the Japanese video game group, has detailed a new online strategy aimed at shoring up the appeal of its specialised gaming consoles, responding to the challenge of mobile phones and websites such as Facebook that can double as gaming platforms. Just a few years ago, Nintendo was earning record profits by attracting millions of first-time and casual gamers to its Wii home console, which featured simple games played using motion-sensing controllers. Now many of those same players are turning to cheap, downloadable smartphone games or browser-based PC games such as FarmVille, the Facebook hit that draws on connections between friends on the networking social site. IN Personal & Household Goods Sales of traditional disk-based games have fallen for four straight years in the US, the largest gaming market, and are down 31 per cent so far this year. In the financial year that ended in March, Nintendo suffered a net loss of Y43bn ($530m), the first loss in its 50 years as a public company. It blamed weak demand for the Nintendo 3DS, the latest version of the company's portable console series, introduced last year, as a primary reason for the loss. Nintendo's new strategic turn involves adding many features of online social games - including a virtual world called the Miiverse, where players can share tips or co-operate in multiplayer sessions - into a forthcoming update of the Wii, the Wii U. Nintendo had already revealed the main new hardware feature of the Wii U, a combination controller and video monitor that can be used in combination with a television or as a standalone handheld console. But the new online features hint at a more fundamental rethinking of its hardware-centred business model. "In the future, we intend to make the Miiverse available on the Nintendo 3DS [portable console], smartphones and PC browsers," said Satoru Iwata, president. We are moving beyond the hardware generation. Mr Iwata spoke in a video presentation ahead of the E3 video game show this week in Los Angeles, where he said the company would present more details about the Miiverse and the new Wii. Other console makers are also trying to adapt to fast-changing consumer habits. Microsoft and Sony are looking to offer music, movies and even live television through their home consoles, the Xbox and PlayStation 3, though in this they face tough competition from Apple's well established iTunes store. Nintendo's Miiverse may offer similar features to Sony's PlayStation Network, which connects about 70m users of the PlayStation 3. Sony is also trying to use online networking to broaden its traditional sales model, for example by making PlayStation games available on licensed third-party devices.