There's more to Nintendo than that now

Today's announcement that Nintendo is working with Japanese mobile giant DeNA on bringing its games to smart devices and its new cross-platform membership programme has sent shock-waves through the games industry, and even Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admits that the move will result in changes within his company.

Speaking during the Business and Capital Alliance Announcement, Iwata explained that this new initiative will "redefine" the preconception of "Nintendo platforms":

Until now, when we said, "platform," it meant a specific video game platform. Now that we are going to release games on smart devices and make use of globally widespread PCs and smart devices for our new membership service, we would like to offer more consumers with software that is suited to their tastes. In other words, we are challenging ourselves to redefine what "Nintendo platforms" mean. With this collaboration with DeNA, a partner with different strengths, we aim to achieve this goal as soon as possible.

Iwata also explained the reasoning behind the move, citing the enormous audience that smart devices offer. However, rather than abandoning traditional consoles, Nintendo is seeking to "create a bridge" between them:

Smart devices have the widest reach and, thus, have the strongest potential for us to be able to connect with the largest number of consumers. We aim to construct a bridge between smart devices and dedicated video game hardware that connects consumers to our dedicated video game systems.

For the consumers who are connected with Nintendo through smart devices and interested in Nintendo's IP, we would like to provide even more premium gameplay experiences on Nintendo's dedicated game platforms. By taking this approach, we firmly believe that doing business on smart devices will not shrink our dedicated video game system business and will instead create new demand as this broader reach will enable us to provide consumers around the world with more opportunities to experience the appeal of Nintendo IP, and instead of trying to seize the other's demand, dedicated video game systems and smart devices will benefit from the synergies created between them.

It's worth noting that Nintendo's next console - the "NX" - will benefit from being fully integrated into the DeNA-developed membership programme from day one. If rumours are to be believed and NX is an all-in-one portable and domestic platform, then there's scope for some interesting connectivity between it and other platforms - such as smart devices and PCs. What do you hope to see? Let us know by posting a comment below.

[source nintendo.co.jp]