It’s about time!
Back in March, late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced a partnership with developer DeNA that would see Nintendo’s beloved franchises introduced on mobile platforms.
Few details were revealed at the time aside from the note that games would be delivered via “a new game distribution portal this autumn, which will be the only way for owners of smartphones and other mobile devices to gain access to Nintendo games.” Nintendo also noted that it wasn’t interested in simply porting existing experiences (developed with controllers in mind) to the platform, and would instead be focusing on new experiences that would feel natural on our current touch-only handsets.
Then, things went quiet until May, when it was reiterated that the first mobile game from Nintendo and DeNA would launch before the end of 2015.
We sure hope you’re not expecting this.
Well, that year-end is fast approaching. Nintendo today revealed some promising quarterly financial results (especially promising when looking at the company’s performance over the last few years), and during that earnings call new Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that “We will provide updates on our project with DeNA tomorrow.”
Nintendo and DeNA’s partnership is set to deliver five mobile games by the end of March, 2017, and tomorrow’s forthcoming detail should finally give us some insight on what to expect from these titles. Will they be fast, free-to-play, addicting (yet tried and true) titles like Nintendo’s now-on-mobile Pokemon Shuffle? Or will the partnership offer up far more unique (and incredibly exciting) titles like Ingress developer Niantic Inc.’s Pokemon Go?
Only time will tell, but I must say that I’m beyond excited for tomorrow’s announcement. Nintendo, as troubled as they’ve been over the past few years, still creates some of the best games in the entire industry, and it’ll be incredibly interesting to see what they have planned for the mobile space.
Looking forward to playing some Nintendo franchises on your iPhone or iPad? Be sure to let us know which characters you’d be most excited to see in the comments below!
