Puzzle and Dragonsscreen

Earlier today it was announced that Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition will be coming to the 3DS around the world, a crossover that undoubtedly has significant sales potential. The Puzzle & Dragons brand is sizeable, with tens of millions of downloads for the smartphone game worldwide.

The series has enjoyed the most success in Japan, which is also a country seeing an explosion in popularity for smart device games; it's also a vital territory for the 3DS, which helped make Puzzle & Dragons Z a notable success. The portable's version, which espoused the free-to-play mechanics of the smartphone original for an all-inclusive setup, had shipped over 1.5 million copies by mid-2014 following a late 2013 release in Japan. That never made it to the West, possibly due to the fact that GungHo's smart device version hasn't matched the huge Japanese download figures in other territories.

It's not surprising that the Super Mario Bros. Edition will be released globally, however, as it combines two powerful brands for what could be a significant hit. The financial markets reflected this, too - as reported by Bloomberg, both Nintendo and GungHo saw shares rise in Tokyo trading; Nintendo's share price increased 2.3%, while GungHo saw its shares climb 4.1%; both had seen bigger spikes during the day before they settled at closing. This is handy for Nintendo, in particular, as its share value had been slowly falling in the early days of 2015.

We anticipate that Nintendo will put a lot of marketing effort behind Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, especially in Japan. Do you think it'll be a big hit?

[source bloomberg.com]