It’s been a long time coming but Nintendo has finally confirmed that it will be bringing its much loved collection of characters to smartphones. Nintendo announced an official partnership with Japanese mobile and online specialists DeNA, which means that it won’t be long before Mario and co will be in pockets where they belong.
This doesn’t mean we’ll be playing 3DS and Wii U games on iPhone though. Nintendo has announced that - in order to maintain a quality gaming experience - only new games that have been optimised for the smart device will be available.
There’s no restriction on what we’re going to be playing either, with Nintendo throwing open the doors to all of its famous - and not so famous - franchises for use in the new partnership with DeNA. Both companies will be developing for the project but Nintendo will be in control of actual game development while DeNA will provide the online support necessary.
DeNA has previously worked on a variety of freemium games for franchises such as Final Fantasy, Star Wars and Transformers as part of its Mobage online community. An online element is going to be key for Nintendo too with the development of a new ‘online membership service’ that can be accessed across all devices.
And when it comes to new devices, Nintendo has also announced an entirely new dedicated gaming platform that will work alongside this online service. Currently code named NX, this new hardware system will be fully integrated into the online membership alongside 3DS, Wii U, smartphones and PC. Iwata promises more information on the 'dedicated gaming platform' next year.
