Just about every Android user I have known has one, if not two, emulators installed to their device. The original Nintendo emulator and the original Playstation are probably the two most prolific. While they work out pretty well most of the time, that doesn’t mean we don’t long for titles to be directly available. Sega has done it with Sonic titles, Square Enix has done it with Final Fantasy, so where is our Nintendo? Up until today’s news broke, Nintendo didn’t have plans or a desire to bring their games to mobile devices. With a new partnership with developer DeNA, that will soon be changing.
DeNA has an ever-growing portfolio with some very big names behind it. They brought us TRANSFORMERS: Battle Tactics, Legends and Age of Extinction, Star Wars: Galactic Defense, Godus and Blood Brothers 2. The team has also worked with Marvel to launch Might Heroes and the more recent Final Fantasy Record Keeper.
The deal between Nintendo and DeNA is a bit of a shuffle of sorts. Nintendo will take a 10% stake in DeNA while DeNA will pick up 1.24% stake of Nintendo. This will allow DeNA acccess to all Nintendo IP and it will be eligible for development and exploration. In short, DeNA can play about with things behind the scene and use big name characters like Mario, Yoshi and Zelda in games legally that Nintendo signs off on.
It all seems a bit twisted though. While I am all for the principal of the idea, it is the remaining bits of news that makes things less a bit more interesting. They state that DeNA will be bringing “original games” out leading me to think more along the lines of Nintendo character themed titles. Think Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash but with Mario and such. There is more though. Apparently the new partnership will also bring about a new online membership service for smartphones, tablets, PC’s and Nintendo consoles like the 3DS and Wii U. There isn’t a name for the service as of yet, but it is said to be on the horizon for a fall launch this year. What the service will bring is still a mystery. I am personally hoping it will be along the lines of NVIDIA GRID where we could stream Nintendo titles, but more than likely it will be more like Steam and other similar services.
Source: Techradar
