Nintendo is Finally Bringing Mario and Other Classic Game Characters to the iPhone

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Posted March 17, 2015 at 3:03pm by iClarified

After years of consecutive annual losses, Nintendo has finally decided to release its games for the iPhone and other mobile devices, reports the WSJ.

Nintendo announced today that it will begin developing games for smartphones based on its classic characters. It struck a partnership with DeNA Co, a Japanese game provider, exchanging ownership stakes. Together they plan to set up a new mobile game platform.

Until now, Nintendo has stubbornly resisted the move to smartphones and tablets for gaming, sticking to its traditional, console based business model. It also refused to license its characters to any mobile developers. The strategy appears to have completely failed with the company posting huge 46.4 billion yen operating loss ($456 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014.

“The company seems to have totally changed its mind-set, after having resisted against mobile game development, publicly complained about the low quality of content in mobile and played down its role in the game world overall,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based game consultant. “This is about the most drastic, bold shift in strategy Nintendo could have undertaken.”

Nintendo is buying a 10% stake in DeNA, for ¥22 billion ($182 million) and Tokyo-based DeNA is acquiring a 1.24% stake in Nintendo for the same amount.

The companies plan to introduce a new game distribution portal this autumn which will apparently be the only way to access the company's games. The portal will also be available via its consoles. Nintendo says it will take the lead on developing games for the portal, while DeNA will operate the technical side. Revenue will generally be split 50-50.

“By tapping into the smartphone we can increase the number of Nintendo fans,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said. “No company in any industry can survive if they fail to adjust to changing market environments.”

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Nintendo is Finally Bringing Mario and Other Classic Game Characters to the iPhone

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Rudi duarte - March 18, 2015 at 10:07am

I guess probably Nintendo they will gonna launch some game like Mario run or something similar. For be honestly it will be good marketing, but ios and also android they needs games like he original ones. Example Pokemon or super mario bro. Nintendo is not stupid at all. At the moment most of the people they are using table or smartphones as a console, if Nintendo doesn't have to much sales and the hight point of the costumers is play on some device as a table... So I think now, why not try it? Regards

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Great! - March 18, 2015 at 6:57am

If they only publish through their own portal that means iPhones won't get access. apple

MUKAI - March 17, 2015 at 8:49pm

That would be nice. Could teach the kids how their father started playing video games.

Dukey - March 17, 2015 at 5:41pm

nintendo r releasing a new console next year I heard today

stevenlacross - March 17, 2015 at 7:10pm

What you heard today was that they are going to be releasing games on a new console, the iPhone and iPad

Sterling Jones - March 17, 2015 at 5:26pm

The original Wii was Nintendo's last hurrah. They will be just like Sega soon. Nintendo will farm out the conversion of these games to low bidders. Support will not exist. This has all happened before. Miyamoto has wanted to retire for years, and Yokoi died years ago. It's over. I miss them already.

gamerscul9870 - March 17, 2015 at 8:41pm

And the wii u stretched out hurrah. It takes gaming to where it hasn't been done before. Related to apples AirPlay yes, but you can choose either the TV or the gamepad to play on and it adds 5 players in one room for the first time. Not to mention how many things you use the gamepad with. Compare all that to ps4 and Xbox one.

Woohooo - March 17, 2015 at 4:31pm

Zelda plz come come plz

Jackieboy - March 17, 2015 at 3:32pm

Are they gonna be like Sega? Are they gonna abandon hardware business?

stevenlacross - March 17, 2015 at 3:59pm

Maybe, maybe not, personally I'd like an Pokemon app that lets you preview all the Pokemon games from red and blue to whatever they are one now. Like once we beat the first gym leader it'll play a trailer for the rest of the game and then ask if you want to buy the game, save your current game or start over to redo that first segment of the game.

gamerscul9870 - March 17, 2015 at 4:39pm

Sega was necessary to, but Nintendo? I doubt it. They expanded on 3ds and wii u. Why abandon the systems that changes gaming? Look what we can do with amiibos, this takes game customization to the next level, more content for wii u games (and 3ds to).

hamood_d10 - March 17, 2015 at 3:29pm

Stuborn hhhhh well the best news ever, finaly they realize what consumer wants

Randy - March 17, 2015 at 3:23pm

Best news this site has ever delivered!

Jacob - March 17, 2015 at 3:23pm

They are finally catching up to jailbreakers, who on IOS seem to usually be ahead of the curve with new things for IOS.

ViperLB - March 17, 2015 at 3:13pm

I'm sure everybody want POKÉMON on their iDevice. I'm just saying.

Cedeno66 - March 17, 2015 at 3:08pm

Ooohh I can't wait!!