Nintendo has inked an agreement with Japanese mobile developer DeNA that will see the duo collaborating on to bring Nintendo’s iconic gaming characters Mario, Zelda and Kirby to smartphones.
“Nintendo and DeNA today entered into a business and capital alliance to develop and operate new game apps for smart devices and build a new multi-device membership service for consumers worldwide,” the official press release read.
As part of the deal, DeNA will develop new games using Nintendo’s intellectual property including Mario and other popular game characters, rather than porting existing ones to ensure quality gaming experience.
“To ensure the quality of game experience that consumers expect from this alliance of Nintendo and DeNA, only new original games optimized for smart device functionality will be created, rather than porting games created specifically for the Wii U home console or the Nintendo 3DS portable system,” DeNA said in a statement.
Nintendo has bought a 10 percent in DeNA, amounting to 15,081,000 treasury shares, while the mobile games publisher has acquired 1.24 percent of Nintendo, coming out to 1,759,400 shares.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has also confirmed that it is developing “a core system compatible with a variety of devices including PCs, smartphones, and tablets, as well as Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems”.
