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Yesterday morning, Nintendo announced that it would be partnering with Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA to produce Nintendo-licensed games for mobile devices. The news certainly came as a surprise to many Nintendo fans; after years of pressure from investors to release its titles on smartphones, it seemed Nintendo was finally giving in and jumping on the proverbial mobile gaming bandwagon. Of course, it wouldn’t be abandoning traditional gaming experiences in the process; Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was quick to stress that Nintendo would still be focusing its efforts primarily on dedicated gaming consoles (even going so far as to tease the company’s next platform), and that its mobile offerings, which would be original titles designed around mobile interfaces and not simple ports of its existing Wii U or 3DS software, would be a way to entice consumers to seek out the company’s “premium” games.
While details are still scarce on exactly what this partnership will entail, we want to hear your thoughts on the announcement. What do you think about Nintendo’s venture into mobile gaming? Are you excited for its possibilities or skeptical of its benefits? Cast your vote in our poll below, and be sure to sound off in the comments!
[poll id=”193″]
Nintendogs, Puzzle League, minigames from Super Mario 64 DS, etc might work. Kids would eat up Pokemon apps.
Others like Advance Wars or Fire Emblem wouldn’t be hurt by finger controls, but I wonder how many mobile players would care or pay. Buying small mission packs would cheapen and likely ruin the experience.
We’ll have to try a few examples to see whether this will bring some genuine Nintendo magic onto mobile platforms or just water down treasured characters and series.
In any case, I really hope this remains a joke:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/02/23/convenience-itself
Luring mobile gamers onto hardcore Nintendo platforms sounds like a strategy that might work. It also sounds risky. I hope it doesn’t work the opposite way.