It came as a massive surprise back in 2015 when Nintendo announced that they would be licensing their IP to mobile publisher DeNA to help gain a foothold in the very lucrative smartphone game arena.
Since then we've seen the quirky social network Miitomo, Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Despite a much criticised free-to-start pricing model, Super Mario Run went on to achieve 150 million downloads on iOS and Android combined, while Fire Emblem Heroes has gone on to be even more profitable.
DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu recently led a company investor's briefing where he revealed that the company has 100 staff members "directly participating" in the commercial arrangement to develop smartphone games (and other services) on behalf of Nintendo. That's 10 percent of DeNA's entire workforce, so it shows how seriously they are taking this relationship.
Moriyasu also revealed how DeNA performed in the last fiscal year. The games business earned them ¥101.4 billion ($915 million), which is down 7.5 percent year-on-year. However it wasn't all doom and gloom; the segment's profits rose 9 percent to ¥28.3 billion ($255 million).
DeNA are actively working on a Animal Crossing mobile game which should be released this year. It has also been reported that a Legend of Zelda game is being worked on too, but less is known about that at present.
How do you feel the DeNA's partnership with Nintendo has worked out so far? Be sure to let us know what you think with a comment below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 28
10%? No wonder the voice chat app is so bad. I'm sure they had some input.
No wonder its online is crap. They are just used for making games.
Need more people.
@BLP_Software I bet they were the ones responsible for ruining the online service on Switch!
I don't care since I don't have and will never have a single game app on my phone.
Need Moaaarrrr.... People !!
1000 maybe.
@In_Ex_Fan
Aha ! Yup.
Same with me.
No games on my smartphone.
I actually prefer the Magikarp game over all of the stuff DeNA have worked on put together.
@memoryman3
So... the 10% of DeNA staffs were like a Bunch of Panic Toads when Online streaming overloaded.
'while Fire Emblem Heroes has gone on to be even more profitable.'
Like, a gazillion? A bazillion gazillion?
10% would sound like a ton of people if it didn't only mean 100 people. I didn't realize how small a company DeNA was.
Regardless, I hope they're able to show off the Animal Crossing app soon. Not that I care too much about it, but it's supposed to come out this year and a direct for it may bring an announcement for Animal Crossing Switch.
They have a bigger net income than nintendo. Lol
Perhaps Nintendo should have just made their own mobile division, but what do I know? Not a lot.
Boo. F2P games deserve a swift (yet agonisingly painful) death. I know they won't, because stupidity reigns supreme nowadays (Source: Idiocracy, Judge, 2006), but this is bad news in my book. Unless they can be purchased outright, any mobile game, even from Nintendo, is dead to me.
Fire Emblem Heroes is great fun! I'm sure a team of 100 people is relatively much for a mobile game. Looking forward to whatever else DeNA has cooking.
@Fandabidozi FE heroes earned $115 million.
@cfgk24
I'm a bit disappointed 😐
Are DeNA actually working on Nintendo's online infastructure? If they are, with that kind of money coming in, surely they can afford to expand the business and put more people working on Nintendo's online services.
As it stands it's an absolute joke the way things have worked out for the Switch.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE do you think 100 people is too few?
Fingers crossed for a port of the BotW top down concept onto mobile...
Nintendo and mobile...it still seems like very small commitment. Wich is very strange since it could earn them lots and lots of money.
I am not complaining though, since I rather won't see Nintendo on mobile at all. Nintendo doesn't belong on mobile.
Seems like plenty of people to me. But of they're truly experts in mobile apps, there's no way they spent any time on the Switch Online App, a communications app that can't even run with the screen turning off or a notification panel.
More people doesn't equate a better product.
@wiggleronacid 100 people is a lot. You are mistaken if you think a company with 1,000 employees is a small company.
DeNA is a big company. According to Wikipedia, it has 2,363 employees. The revenue in fiscal year 2012 is 1.8 billion USD. The revenue in fiscal year 2016 is 143.8 billion yen.
Even with 100 people, they still can't put together a decent chat application. Just effing copy discord if you need to!
@NinNin Yeah. I would assume that 10% is 10% of their development staff anyway and isn't including personnel/sales/marketing and so on.
Im really curious how the rumored Zelda game is gonna be, it's really the only mobile app from Nintendo im excited about. FE was ok, since im a Gacha type addict, but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe cus its missing most of the cast of games i actually liked in the franchise. But Zelda could be make or break for me.
@NinNin Sorry if I came across in a negative manner. "Small" may not have been the appropriate term for me to use and I didn't want to make DeNa sound unsuccessful or anything. I was primarily talking about the amount of employees it has, not its fiscal revenue. And you're right, 1,000 employees isn't small by any means. I guess I was just comparing it to other "big name" tech giants at the time of typing this, which is kind of silly and not exactly fair on my part. I guess most companies would be considered "small" by that assumption!
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