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NINTENDO HAS ANNOUNCED it will be making its move into smartphone gaming after revealing a partnership with one of Japan’s biggest mobile gaming companies.
Those expecting the likes of Super Mario World and Ocarina of Time to make their to your smartphone will be left disappointed as these titles will be designed exclusively for the devices instead of ports.
Instead, the partnership with DeNA will focus on developing new gaming apps specifically for smartphones and tablets. They will feature Nintendo IP and according to Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata, it will give them the opportunity to reach out to more people around the world.
For the consumers who are connected with Nintendo through smart devices and interested in Nintendo’s IP, we would like to provide even more premium gameplay experiences on Nintendo’s dedicated game platforms.By taking this approach, we firmly believe that doing business on smart devices will not shrink our dedicated video game system business and will instead create new demand as this broader reach will enable us to provide consumers around the world with more opportunities to experience the appeal of Nintendo.
While the main focus of this announcement was on mobile, Iwata also mentioned the company was working on a new console, codenamed ‘NX’. Little was revealed about it apart from it having a “brand-new concept” and that more information would be shared next year.
Nintendo and DeNA will also develop a cross-platform service that will run across PC’s smartphones, tablets and Nintendo’s own consoles. It’s expected to launch in autumn this year.
Nintendo has been briefly dealing with the idea of mobile gaming and lending out its IP to other developers. On 3DS, it released a free-to-play puzzle game Pokémon Shuffle on the 3DS, which shares a number of similarities to Candy Crush Saga, while a Super Mario version of Puzzle & Dragons will be released later this year.
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