Wall Street Journal:
Nintendo Co. dropped its long-standing aversion to mobile gaming, saying Tuesday that it would begin developing games for smartphones based on characters such as Mario the plumber.
The surprising about-face by Nintendo includes a partnership with DeNA Co., a Japanese mobile game provider, under which the companies will exchange ownership stakes and jointly develop “gaming applications” for smartphones and other devices.
And:
Nintendo said it was buying a 10% stake in DeNA for ¥22 billion ($182 million), while DeNA is acquiring a 1.24% stake in Nintendo for the same amount.
And:
The companies said they would develop a new “multi-device membership service for the global market,” to be introduced this autumn. It will be compatible with a variety of devices, including PC’s, smartphones and tablets, as well as Nintendo’s game consoles.
This is pure speculation, but this last bit makes me feel like Nintendo is considering a multi-user service, like Microsoft’s Xbox Live or Sony’s Playstation Network and, perhaps, a massively multiplayer Zelda universe. Conjecture, or merely wishful thinking?
A massively multiplayer Zelda universe on my iPhone…I might never get anything done.
Well they already have an account system…it’s just really archaic and badly needs to be updated to modern standards, so I’m thinking it’s to address that.
It itself wouldn’t necessarily enable a MMO Zelda or whatever, but in conjunction with the other part of the deal (just the general idea of development on other devices) it would help enable that if they ever wanted to explore that route.
The “multi-device membership service” will probably just tie everyone into “miiverse” in order for mobile users to see what all the console players are playin’. Maybe, IDK. Nintendo being Nintendo, this is probably being viewed as a way to introduce everyone with a phone into their existing ecosystem, like the iPod was to windows users. Just a taste that will boost their profile and make them some money to boot.