Nintendo has said it will release new consoles targeted at emerging markets, marking a strategy shift for the Japanese gaming giant. The products will be built from the ground up to serve these markets, rather than repurposing existing hardware. "We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have," CEO and president Satoru Iwata told Bloomberg News. "The product and price balance must be made from scratch."

"The product and price balance must be made from scratch."

Nintendo has typically sought to sell the same hardware around the world until now, though there have been exceptions like the N64-based iQue Player, released exclusively in China in 2003. That machine used an unusual kiosk distribution system in an attempt to combat China's endemic software piracy.

The news follows Nintendo's disappointing 2013 earnings report yesterday that saw the company slump to a loss for the third consecutive year. Earlier today Iwata outlined plans to launch a smartphone web app for Mario Kart 8 and a line of NFC-equipped figurines, but reiterated to Bloomberg that the company won't release games in its popular franchises on mobile devices. "We have had a console business for 30 years and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model," he said.