
The passing of Satoru Iwata in July was an significant blow to Nintendo and his many admirers around the world, though company business has so far continued to follow planned timelines - at present Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda are running Nintendo on an interim basis.
A major announcement towards the close of Satoru Iwata's presidency was the move into mobile for Nintendo, in a major corporate partnership with DeNA. It's been emphasized repeatedly that a game will arrive from that relationship this year, and when speaking to investors last week DeNA President Isao Moriyasu has confirmed that the company is still on target for 2015, with around five games planned in 2016 and early 2017. CEO of Tokyo-based game industry consultancy Kantan Games, Dr. Serkan Toto, provided details.
DeNA's Q1 financial report also stated that it's "currently making announcement plans" for that first Nintendo game on smart devices, so it may not be too long before we see what's been produced from this partnership.
Are you excited about this smart device game, cautious, worried? Let us know.
Comments 43
Looking forward to it. I think a Nintendo direct will happen by month's end, going over holiday games, revealing mobile game, and revealing membership service.
PUNCH OUT! calling it now, perfect fit for Mobile. Can have cross liscensing with other IP, actual boxers and a host of Nintendo characters.(each character is 50p). TKO
@FargusPelagius good fit indeed. Punch-out lacks the publicity splash, though.
Their mobile game this year is probably Mario runner with a twist on the genre.
I wasn't very excited about mobile Nintendo games at first, but now I am super excited about them. I think they will be nuts!
I think something like Warioware could work well on mobile.
So...they're saying we'll have one by end-2015? They've been saying that since March.
I'd think that a Dr. Mario would be nice for mobile. Tetris with a twist, and multiple game modes for people to play with if they choose to pay. The base game is free, however.
I'd rather not have a Mario runner, come on, that's overdone.
I'm happy. I'm not into it, but I'm happy. I just don't like moble games that much. Maybe if you could "grind" with mini games and transfer that to your console games I would buy in
@FargusPelagius WHAT? Punch-Out NEEDS button inputs! How is this a perfect fit for mobile?
Tomodachi life could work great on mobile
@TruenoGT yeah I hope Nintendo doesn't pull any ios first/exclusive crap. Though I am considering and iPhone 6 or LG G4 soon.
@WebHead I don't think they will. If anything it will be through the Amazon app store exclusively at first considering the rumours of Amazon contacting nintendo on this. I think nintendo will help transform mobile into a legitimate game playing model.
I think Donkey Kong Country cart section or flying barrel section would be a good fit for mobile, then use it as advertisement for full DKC experience on Wii U/3DS.
Nice. I'm not really into mobile games, but this'll be great if it earns Nintendo money. I occasionally play smartphone games, mostly as a time waster, but I might check out Nintendo's games when they're released.
annoyed. but it won't stop me from supporting Nintendo. if they don't dilute their brands and only release things like shuffle, then I am not too worried. (I enjoy shuffle for what it is, so it's not a negative by any means)
@Grez I hope not. I ain't getting no fire tablet or fire phone.
@WebHead you can use Amazon app store on any android device, doesn't have to be an Amazon one
I'm curious what kind of game they'll be releasing. It's almost certainly going to have Mario but other than that who knows. I could see DeNA doing something along the lines of what they did with FF with Record Keeper (or whatever it's called).
I would love to see the Kawashima games in here. Those appeal to a broad audience, use touch screen/microphone inputs and you can play them a few minutes every day.
I just put a lot of effort into fixing my doggone tablet (that is still not working as well as I expect it to be).... I hope to play some of these DeNA games on it.
One of the very last companies in the industry to put out mobile content. May the timing serve them well. Long live dedicated hardware.
To be honest, I'm indifferent. I don't think these are games I'll be playing, first because they're probably not bringing them to Windows Phone, secondly because at the end of the day I don't really have any interest in mobile gaming.
It's interesting, because in a way they should have done it ages ago. But then again ever since the stock collapsed, it actually doubled in size and grew phenomenally in the last couple of years without the mobile. And now there's all the anticipation at this new revenue stream at the same time they have the amiibo and are talking about so much new hardware (NX, QoL). I think they timed it right. If the games are successful, well the first one, stock should go through the roof by the end of the year.
If they want to make a splash in mobile they are going to have to advertise like crazy like other mobile games do. And we all know how Nintendo loves to advertise..........
"We will try to honor Iwata-san".......Try? That word confirms it. They don't even know if their first game will be top notch or not.
Talk about honor. If I were to honor him, I'd make a quality game and if I failed, I'd kill myself because I failed to honor him.
Some partnership DeNa has! >: (
@Artwark Are you really basing your opinion on games that haven't even officially been announced on your interpretation of just one word? Really? No wonder Nintendo doesn't sell much if their fans are impatient and behave like know-it-alls.
"We will try to honor Iwata-san by executing as good as we can" can mean a lot of things, so just be patient and wait until the games are out. Then you can still rant about them if they should really be crappy.
@manu0
Think Infinity blade with boxers? Or simply, little kids tapping phones to beat the snot out of your opponent. tap space to duck or weave into the space to avoid blows, tap your character to block. Doesn't really take a genius to make an accessible mobile game from it. Add in Nintendo's ludicrous character design an I think it would be a hit.
@erv
Get some actual boxers to help market it, put Mike Tyson in it ha ha. Auto Publicity.
@FargusPelagius Of course it COULD be done. But for me the soul of Punch-Out lies in precise button inputs and for that you need tactile feedback.
@Squidling
Wario ware and the Nes Remix games, both would fit Mobile well.Agreed.
@manu0
You can buy the Gameboy add on for your phone then, has all the buttons you need for Punch out.
@WebHead A Mario runner? Not very optimistic about their outpout, eh?
What is FY16? Full year?
@coolaggro Fiscal year. That's the financial year that runs from April 1st to March 31st. He's saying that there will be 5 mobile games from now until March 31st, 2017. So one this fall, 3 spread out across 2016, and one in early 2017.
@IceClimbers cool thanks
@shani I'm not bashing. The word try is irritating because you want to do something really good to prove that it was worth it and Iwata-san did the right move.
@Artwark I get what you mean, but wouldn't it be worse if they bragged about it and said "our games will be totally awesome and honour Iwata-san" and then disappoint everyone when they're not? Anyway, I think it has more to to with everyone's personal outlook on life. Whether you're generally more optimistic and naive or more realistic and sceptic.
I for one am always for the more modest approach. I would've chosen similar words, especially the word "try". Because you can't do anything else than try and you never know how things turnout beforehand. So for me it would be dumb to say anything definitive like "our games will totally honour Iwata-san" because on the off-chance that they won't, the person who said it will never be able to look in the mirror again.
I will be interested to know what apps are they making. your run of the mill farmville or something different?
They said they wont put main series titles of ports, thankfully. I think a good game would be a Clash of Clans style strategy game with Legend of Zelda.
I'm interested to see what they will develop, hopefully it doesn't destroy Nintendo's brand value, or their IP's value. We have enough of Konami and Sega for that.
I'm old school and traditional, up until this point I have yet to see any iOs app that I would qualify as a real game instead of a "Slot App", game apps that have the minimum amount of context, programing and creativity created for the sole reason to spend real money to buy unnecessary in-game ghost/air items, can Nintendo change that or are they also in it for the quick buck? hopefully the first otherwise I'm not interested.. That being said I can sort of see something like Animal Crossing - Amiibo Festival working for an iOs device..
Nintendo games that would do well on a smartphone is almost anything without buttons: Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Zelda Spirit Tracks, Nintendogs+cats, Style Boutique, Hotel Dusk/Last Window, Big Brain Academy, Electroplankton, Dr. Kawashima, Phoenix Wright, Prof. Layton, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Puzzle League, Picross, WarioWare, Animal Crossing.
@Dgrin I think hearthstone is a real game and it is on mobile. Honestly the convenience of having it on my phone makes it my most played game. If Nintendo can make an experience as deep as that then I am very excited.
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