Nintendo bringing iconic IP to smart devices through DeNA alliance

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Nintendo have today announced that they have entered a business and capital alliance with DeNA, which will see the companies collaborate to develop new game applications leveraging Nintendo’s illustrious intellectual property (IP) for smart devices.

This move sees Nintendo acquire 15,081,000 of DeNA’s treasury shares for nearly 22 billion yen (£123 million), which equates to 10 percent of the company’s outstanding stock. Whereas DeNA will simultaneously acquire 1,759,400 of Nintendo’s treasury shares, equating to 1.24 percent of their outstanding stock for the same price. Payments will be due in the new fiscal year, on 2nd April 2015.

Nintendo have understandably looked to reiterate that this doesn’t signal their exit from the hardware market, revealing that a “new hardware system with a brand-new concept” is currently being developed – internally referred to as codename NX.

They instead refer to their arrangement with DeNA as serving “to complement Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems business and extend Nintendo’s reach into the vast market of smart device users worldwide.”

Nintendo won’t port games developed specifically for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS, only “new original games optimised for smart device functionality will be created,” although “all Nintendo IP will be eligible for development and exploration by the alliance.”

Alongside this, the two companies are planning to develop an online membership service that can be accessed from smart devices, PC and Nintendo systems, which will launch in autumn and draw on DeNA’s experience in such services.

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