his morning Nintendo announced a partnership with DeNA (pronounced “D-N-A”) to deliver new titles featuring Nintendo characters to “smart devices and bring a new multi-device membership service” to market worldwide.
This is the news that Nintendo fans have been waiting the better part of a decade to hear. As our own Anthony Domanico put it in an editorial back in 2011, “Nintendo could single-handedly revolutionize Android gaming…but they don’t wanna.”
Apparently the sheer size of the smartphone and tablet market has finally overwhelmed whatever concerns Nintendo had about cannibalizing its own hardware sales. It seems shocking that it took them this long to appreciate that position, considering it was back in 2011 that the tide turned and smartphone gaming first overtook the traditional handheld gaming market.
Company enters into broad pact with DeNA, says it is working on a console codenamed NX
With all that said, it would be foolish to pretend that Nintendo has completely squandered its advantage. As long as this partnership brings compelling games to the table with incredibly popular Nintendo characters, there is little doubt that it will prove tremendously successful.
Nintendo had no announcements regarding titles or availability today, but indicated that the games developed under this partnership will be new titles and not ports of existing 3DS or Wii U games. Hopefully this reflects an acknowledgement of the differences in the platforms and doesn’t mean that we are going to see diminished experiences on smartphones. If we see anything along the lines of Donkey Kong Crush Saga I’m going to be pretty disappointed.
Newzoo, a market research firm, estimates that mobile games generated $25 billion in revenue in 2014, up 42% from a year earlier. This year mobile games will replace consoles as the largest game segment, the firm said.
Nintendo has recorded three straight years of operating losses, through the 12 months ending March 31, 2014.
Nintendo was under additional pressure to shift because sales of the company’s game consoles and hand-held devices have been disappointing. Meanwhile Sony Corp. has sold more than 20 million PlayStation 4 systems, and it has begun a service that lets owners of console games play them on mobile devices, too.
Nintendo isn’t giving up on consoles. The company is planning a new one, code-named NX, Mr. Iwata said Tuesday. But the mobile partnership could help it break into markets where its consoles have struggled, he added.
In addition to Mario, Nintendo franchises include Pokémon, Metroid and Donkey Kong. Mr. Iwata said there would be “no limitations” on which titles could be used in the partnership with DeNA. The company said it would develop new games based on its characters, rather than adapting existing console games, in order to optimize the mobile experience.
Amir Anvarzadeh, head of Japan equity sales at BGC Partners in Singapore, said Nintendo’s concerns about watering down the value of its intellectual property were valid. DeNA could benefit more from the partnership, he said.
Source: WSJ
