Nintendo Has Amazing IP

Not only could Nintendo take the opportunity to create brand new properties designed around the social networking platforms, but the company could bring many of its existing franchises to Facebook and MySpace. Could you imagine the possibilities for something like Animal Crossing? It's the perfect IP for a social network; Nintendo would be rolling in money from micro-transactions. Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Nintendogs, Brain Age, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars... the list goes on and on. Any of these properties could do quite well if properly adapted to a social network.

And as we said before, the audience is already there and would be quite receptive to these franchises. Moreover, bringing the franchises to Facebook creates a compelling opportunity for Nintendo to actually connect the console and handheld versions of these properties with the social platform games. What if you could do something in Animal Crossing on the Wii, and through Nintendo's network it would update your standing in your Animal Crossing Facebook game, or vice versa?

Nintendo also could use the social platforms as a way to introduce new players to these franchises and perhaps incentivize them to purchase the games for a Wii or DS. If Nintendo is serious about expanding its gaming audience, this could be the way to do it – which brings us to our next point...