This is a tricky piece of news.

Nintendo Co. (7974) jumped in Tokyo trading after its new Mario Kart 8 video game surpassed 1 million units in U.S. sales and affiliate The Pokemon Co. said an online trading-card game will be released as an application for Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPad.

The Pokémon game is owned by The Pokémon Company, which is affiliated with Nintendo (Nintendo has certain licensing and marketing rights) but not owned by Nintendo.

“We have been here many times before in regards to Nintendo’s tentative plans to introduce some of its characters for smart devices,” Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. in Singapore, said by e-mail. “This latest Pokemon cards plan which is already out on PCs is hardly a change in its direction.”

This is not quite correct. Since there is currently no Nintendo affiliated game on the iPad, this is a “sticking their toes in the water” moment for Nintendo. Pokémon is a huge property, certainly one of the largest electronic gaming properties in the world. Pokémon on iPad is a big step for The Pokémon Company and for Apple, and I would think the sales numbers will be an important source of sales intel for future Nintendo projects.