Tokyo – After years of scoffing at the threat from smartphones, Nintendo is doing an about face and entering an alliance with Japanese mobile game company DeNA Co. to develop games for mobile devices.
The announcement Tuesday means that Nintendo’s trademark game characters such as Super Mario and Pokemon could finally feature on smartphones and tablets.
Such characters have been fiercely protected by Nintendo, appearing only on Nintendo platforms such as the Wii home console and 3DS mobile machines.
Both sides said they will build a global membership service for various devices including personal computers, smartphones and Nintendo machines. The service is set to launch late in 2015.
They said the mobile games won’t be mere adaptations of the games already out for the Nintendo machines but developed especially for the smartphone experience.
The alliance will be combining Nintendo’s intellectual property and game development skills with DeNA’s expertise in mobile games, the announcement said.
Nintendo has run into trouble in the past few years as people increasingly turned to mobile phones to play games and spend time on social networks.
The company is expecting to turn a profit for the fiscal year ending later this month, a turnaround from red ink the previous year.
Tokyo-based DeNA, founded in 1999, has a reputation as an innovator and is one of the most successful of a new generation of Japanese technology companies. It develops and operates a broad range of mobile and online services including games and e-commerce.
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Sapa-AP