Nintendo might have kept its roster of famous characters off of your mobile handset for the past decade, but that won't be the case for much longer, as this morning it announced a partnership with mobile platform provider DeNA, to produce a number of smartphone spin-off titles from the entire collection of Nintendo's IPs.
That means that before long, we could be seeing Mario and friends in an adventure crafted purely for your mobile handset, or Link battling Ganon or even, fingers crossed here people, Pokemon.
"To ensure the quality of game experience that consumers expect from this alliance of Nintendo and DeNA, only new original games optimised 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," a Nintendo spokesperson said.
When asked whether existing games would be ported over to the new format, Nintendo said that that wouldn't happen. Much like the way it handled the 3DS and Wii U versions of Smash Bros, unique games would be produced for smartphones, though of course that could mean dual development of new games, rather than that meaning no Mario Party would ever appear on a handset.
As part of the deal some stock will trade hands, with Nintendo taking on 10 per cent of DeNA and DenA taking on 1.24 per cent of Nintendo. The two companies will also be working on a joint subscription system which will span smartphones, the Wii U and the 3DS, perhaps in a similar manner to PlayStation + or Xbox Live.
