For several years now Nintendo has kept Mario, Luigi and other characters out of the mobile game arena. Now Nintendo is working to push the release of five smartphone games in the coming few years. A recent Report from Nintendo says that they will be launching its first smartphone game in 2015, and is planning to release four more games by March 2017. While this may be a very small number considering the several hundred titles released on its 3DS and Wii U platforms, Nintendo CEO and President Satoru Iwata explained the reason behind the company’s latest move. Iwata said, “You may think it is a small number,” adding, “But when we aim to make each title a hit and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart-device business.”
While Nintendo has not revealed the precise intellectual properties it will be tapping for the company’s first mobile game, the company stated in March that nothing in its catalog, counting the likes of ‘Super Mario’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda,’ is ruled out. In fact, in March Nintendo disclosed its intention to make mobile games in collaboration with Japanese mobile developer DeNA. Meanwhile, Nintendo is hoping that its entry into the mobile market will help to attract new customers while it will be using smartphones in the form of bridges to its own dedicated console systems.
eMarketer says that the timing of Nintendo’s entry into the mobile market may be appropriate for the company since U.S. mobile-game revenue surpassed $2.6 billion in 2014 and is expected to increase by 16.5 percent to over $3 billion this year.
Source: IGN, Breathecast
