Nintendo announced today that they are entering into a partnership with DeNA to bring Nintendo IPs to smart and mobile devices. In a surprise press conference Iwata and the president and CEO of DeNA, Isao Moriyasu, explained the details of the collaboration, which includes a stock share. 10% of DeNA will go to Nintendo, while 1.4% of Nintendo will go to DeNA.
Iwata himself was keen to stress that this wouldn’t lead to Nintendo focusing less on their current platforms and games, saying “Nintendo has decided to deploy its video game business on smart devices but it is not because we have lost passion or vision for the business of dedicated video game systems.” He then went on to announce that they currently have a new game platform “with a brand-new concept” currently under development, codenamed “NX”.
Additionally, Iwata explained that this move wasn’t made to port existing Nintendo games directly to mobile. “There are significant differences in the controls, strengths and weaknesses between the controllers for dedicated game systems and the touchscreens of smart devices. We have no intention at all to port existing game titles for dedicated games platforms to smart devices because if we cannot provide our consumers with the best possible play experiences, it would just ruin the value of Nintendo’s IP.”
The company Nintendo is partnering with, DeNA, is a mobile platform creator, operating the popular Japanese network Mobage, as well as publishing many mobile games since their inception in 1999. Part of the announcement today was detailing a new Nintendo membership service, which will “form one of the core elements of the new Nintendo platform.”
As to what exact form these mobile games will take, details were thin on the ground, as were details on just how directly involved Nintendo will be in the development and creation of the games.
You can find a full translated transcript of the conference here.