Nintendo Looking To Partner With More Mobile Developers
Nintendo is reportedly looking to partner with more mobile developers to expand its mobile operations. The company hopes that by partnering with more developers, it will be "raising the pace" of new mobile titles after last year's mobile revenue "fell short of expectations".
The company is already partnered with DeNA to produce mobile games. Nintendo also bought a 10 percent stake in the company back in 2015 however, the partnership didn't go exactly as planned.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo's original plan entailed releasing five smartphone games with DeNA by March 2017. As of today, it has produced four, with the latest being "Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp" which was released last month.
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As such, the company's executives presented a new plan which seems to have been hatched after sales of the core "Animal Crossing" games have increased following the release of "Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp."
Instead of squeezing every drop of revenue from their existing mobile games themselves, the company will use those games to introduce mobile gamers to Nintendo properties in the hopes of converting them to console or handheld titles as traditional gaming is still considered a central tenet at Nintendo.
In a nutshell, Nintendo plans to use mobile games as a pseudo-lite version of its console IPs (intellectual properties) which are much more lucrative. Also, given that most of Nintendo's console-based IPs are first-party exclusives, there's a high chance that converted gamers might also buy either a Nintendo Switch or 3DS, if they haven't done so already that is.
One of the rumored companies Nintendo is looking to partner with is GungHo Online, which produces the Puzzle & Dragons series for 3DS. GungHo also has previously licensed characters from the Mario franchise and is also apparently producing titles for the Switch.
However, unlike its deal with DeNA it doesn't look like Nintendo is looking to take ownership stakes with these companies and just wants to work with them to develop new IPs. So far though, it seems that the strategy is working so expect more developer partnerships to be revealed in the coming months.
