Nintendo has done its best to avoid the mobile revolution. While the gaming company did invent the original Game Boy and the DS, Nintendo has done everything it could to avoid bringing its franchise properties to iPhones and Android devices. However, it looks like Nintendo has changed its mind and is going after the market.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata hosted a press conference on Tuesday in which he announced his plans to work with Japanese mobile game deverloper DeNA Co. to bring Nintendo IP to iPhones. Users should expect to see Mario, Link and Samus coming to their smartphones soon. Nintendo was open to transferring all sorts of Nintendo games to mobile in the near future. Iwata also expressed that he was open to the potential of using free-to-play mechanics in upcoming Nintendo releases. This isn't a surprising move, since Nintendo has experimented with the idea of Nintendo-based free-to-play games, such as "Pokemon Shuffle." Inata also expressed an interest in bringing a level of mobile compatibility to Nintendo devices. Such an update would mean that users could sync their phones up with their Wii, Wii U or 3DS.
However, you won't see Super Mario Galaxy on your smartphone. DeNA noted how its technical limitations will affect its ability to import certain games to a mobile system: "To ensure the quality of game experience that consumers expect from this alliance of Nintendo and DeNA, only new original games optimized for smart device functionality will be created, rather than porting games created specifically for the Wii U home console or the Nintendo 3DS portable system."
Nintendo also announced that it now has a 10 percent share hold on DeNA. Tokyo-based games analyst Serkan Toto told the Wall Street Journal, "This is about the most drastic, bold shift in strategy Nintendo could have undertaken."
Inata also announced that Nintendo will release the next traditional Nintendo Console, code-named "NX", in the next year. However, Inata was unwilling to reveal any more details about the device.
