Nintendo announced during its press conference with DeNa its plans to begin developing for the mobile market, as well as plans for a new dedicated gaming system.
Nintendo and DeNA will be entering into a business alliance to develope apps for smart devices and create a multi-device membership service for consumers worldwide. This membership will be replacing Club Nintendo later this year. All Nintendo IP will eligible for game development in this alliance. The partnership will also be working on entirely new games, instead of porting old games to the mobile platforms.
Nintendo is also developing a new hardware system under the codename: NX. Nintendo stayed tight lipped about the mysterious new system, or what its intents for it were, though speculation could point to strong integration with this new "multi-device service" (perhaps a modern day Game&Watch with small titles downloaded from this new service?) Nintendo's seeming business objective is to bring in new audiences through the mobile market. As mobile focused audiences play Nintendo brand IP, they may be more inclined to purchase a dedicated video game system such as the Wii U, the 3DS, or this new "NX" system. No titles were announced during the conference. Part of this alliance means that Nintendo and DeNA now own equal amounts of each others stock. More information on the deal can be found here.
This is a day many have been asking for. Countless talks, from podcasts to lunchrooms, have been over whether or not Nintendo should develop games for the mobile market. Perhaps more interesting is this multi-device service and membership which will be replacing Club Nintendo. For years a critical failure of Nintendo has been creating a cross platform service (ala PSN or Xbox Live), which forced many to re-buy games they downloaded from the eShop when their devices died, were traded in, or the consumer simply moved onto Nintendo's next console. This made many uncertain about purchasing titles form the eShop, especially if they did not own an external hard drive large enough to hold their games. This new NX system could be the start of Nintendo devices made from the ground up to support a multi-platform service.
What is your take on this? Are you excited to see the Legend of Zelda of the iPad? Do you think Metroid will appeal to kids raised on Minecraft? Will your Grandma give Kirby a try? What do you think the NX console is? Let us know in the comments below!
