Nintendo has finally come to their senses
as it relates to the smartphone and Tablets as a lucrative Platform for Gaming.
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On
Tuesday March 17th 2015, Nintendo
announced an alliance with Japanese Mobile Gaming
firm DeNa to bring their Console games to
smartphones and Tablets as announced in the article “Super
Mario to go Mobile as Nintendo ventures into smartphone games”, published
Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:38am EDT by TEPPEI KASAI, Reuters.
The announcement of the partnership made during the
joint-press conference between Nintendo and DeNa as detailed
originally in “Nintendo
and DeNA Form Business and Capital Alliance”, published March 17, 2015, Globe Newswire, will also see the two
companies taking a US$181 million (22 billion yen) stake in each other’s
businesses; that works out to be 10% of DeNa and
1.24% of Nintendo.
DeNa will help to port Nintendo
existing portfolio of Games to smartphones and Tablets in a deal that began as
talks in the Summer of 2010 but became more serious in 2014 as noted in the
article “Nintendo
Partners With DeNA To Bring Its Games And IP To Smartphones”,
published Mar 17, 2015 by Jon Russell, Techcrunch.
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DeNa and Nintendo
will also launch a cross-platform service later in the Fourth Quarter of 2015
that'll allow gamers to play games across a range of devices, including
Tablets, smartphones, Set top Streaming Devices and Nintendo Gaming
Handhelds and Consoles as stated in the article “Nintendo
is making smartphone games with Japanese Mobile giant DeNA”, published
March 17, 2015 03:36 am By Sam Byford, The
Verge.
DeNa president and CEO Isao
Moriyasu was clearly excited about the partnership as noted in the article “NINTENDO IS FINALLY
BRINGING MARIO TO MOBILE PHONES”, published 03.17.15 by CHRIS KOHLER, Wired , quote: “I believe teaming up with Nintendo
is the best possible strategy to achieve growth in DeNa’s
core business of Mobile Gaming. I grew up playing Nintendo
games, and I’m already excited that I will soon be able to play Nintendo
IP games on smart devices”.
Nintendo
3DS against the Ropes - Partnership with DeNa to boost sales of Mobile Sales
Nintendo's
decision is clearly financially motivated and is long overdue as the Handheld
Portable Gaming world is slowly dying as long ago predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Nintendo and
Sony vs Smartphones and Tablets: Post - Portable Gaming Era”.
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With budget smartphone sales set to rise in 2015 based on
the stats of analysts IDC and Gartner as concluded in my blog article
entitled “Gartner
and IDC Forecast Tablets, PC fall, Smartphone rise - How Tablet's 3-Year
Lifespan means Sub-US$199 Smartphones, Chrome OS to Dominate”, this
decision was inevitable.
The announcement of a new Gaming console,
codenamed NX, was also announced. But as no details were provided, this is the
only line I’ll mention it in until further details emerge.
DeNa
and Nintendo - Partnership with 16 year Web and App based Gaming Veteran as
VR/AR Beckons
DeNa is the perfect partner
for this venture.
DeNa began in 1999 and built
their multi-billion Gamin empire over the next sixteen (16) years through deals,
partnerships and acquisitions. They came to prominence with the growth of
web-based Mobile games in Japan and its Mobage service.
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But like most Developers of Games, they began to realize
that the two smartphone platforms, Google Android and Apple iOS and their App
stores were a source of continued growth.
To that end they purchased Ngmoco for US$400 million,
US$300 million in cash and US$100 million earn out in October 2010 as stated in
the article “Done
Deal" – DeNA To Announce Ngmoco Acquisition Very Soon (Confirmed),
published Oct 12, 2010 by Michael Arrington, Techcrunch.
They soon acquired a Vietnam, Hanoi-based game studio with
a penchant for Social Mobile Gaming, Punch Entertainment Company Limited, in
September 2011 as stated in their Press Release “DeNA
to Acquire Punch Entertainment's Vietnam Studio”, published September 12,
2011, DeNa.
More recently, DeNa
announced a deal with console publisher Square Enix to launch a new Final
Fantasy Mobile game, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper as reported in the article “Square
Enix and DeNA announce Mobile RPG Final Fantasy: Record Keeper”, published
February 26, 2015 7:30 AM by Dale North, VentureBeat.
In February 2015 DeNa has
also launched Mobile Games based on the Transformers and Marvel franchise as
noted in the articles “DeNA
and Hasbro Launch TRANSFORMERS: BATTLE TACTICS Mobile Game”, published
February 5, 2015, DeNa and “DeNA
and Marvel Team-Up for Marvel Mighty Heroes”, published Feb 23, 2015 by Ben
Morse, Marvel.
Still, their switch was not without problem, as DeNa took a hit, with revenues declining as
follows:
1.
17% year-on-year to
US$287 million
2.
55% decline in
operating profit to US$43 million
Perhaps this partnership with Gaming Giant Nintendo
will be the Gaming Profit Engine they need as they guide them towards the
future of Gaming on Mobile Consoles.
Still, where is Nintendo
on VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality), which even Google is
showing interested in developing an Operating System for developing VR Headsets
as stated in my blog
article entitled “@google
to develope Google @Android for VR - Why a VR and AR War is looming on the
Horizon in 2016”?
Based on the announcement from MWC (Mobile World
Conference) 2015, 2016 is looking like the Year of VR, starting this year with
HTC, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung as noted in my blog article
entitled “@Oculus
Mobile VR Jam 2015 - How @samsung Gear VR is Gearing up for Competition in the
VR and AR Space”.
More to come in another article.....
Here’s the link:
Dena Twitter Page:
@DeNACorp
Nintendo of
America Twitter Page: @NintendoAmerica
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