For years, speculation has swirled about Nintendo developing new titles based on its intellectual property for mobile devices. Yesterday, that possibility became a reality. The giant behind Mario, Zelda, and Metroid will join forces with Japanese company DeNA, and the games resulting from this alliance will act in a “complementary” way to what Nintendo already offers in the market.
A Time of Change for Nintendo
Change is coming for Nintendo. Despite specific successes like Mario Kart 8, Amiibo figures, and the Pokémon franchise, the Japanese giant needs to recover lost ground against its competitors and finally escape the plague of red numbers. Even with several stumbles accumulated, no one denies that the company owns very popular and economically powerful franchises. As far as we can remember, Nintendo has systematically rejected the possibility of seeing its main characters outside hardware “native”, a decision understandable from a certain point of view, but one that ties all games under its development to the performance of each platform. Unfortunately, Nintendo has reached a point where this rejection causes more problems than it solves, and if it truly sees growth as a priority, it will have to open some frontiers.
The DeNA Alliance
That is exactly what happened yesterday, when the company confirmed a new alliance with DeNA, one of the largest mobile solution providers in Japan. The technical term speaks of a “business and capital alliance”, which includes the development of new games destined for smartphones and tablets. The key here is that the products derived from this alliance will adopt a complementary profile compared to the games Nintendo sells on its own. What does this mean? In essence, there will be no ports. Nintendo said the new line of development will be limited to “original optimized games” for mobile devices, and it was President Satoru Iwata himself who added that “there is no intention” to bring existing titles to external hardware.
Personally, I think the entire announcement would have fallen flat after those words if it weren't for two more aspects. On one hand, the alliance between Nintendo and DeNA will create a new subscription service compatible not only with Nintendo consoles and mobile devices, but also with PCs, which many see as the successor to the Club Nintendo system that will disappear in July. The effective benefits of that future service are still unknown, but they will be closely linked to a new console, known only as NX. All that was squeezed out of Nintendo about NX is that it is a new hardware system with a new concept applied, a classic “non-statement” that puts consumers on edge. At the same time, the company assured that there will be no NX news until 2016. I admit that Nintendo's arrival on mobile devices is a good change, but the lack of information shows that old habits die hard.
