Nintendo’s push into the mobile gaming market is gaining more traction, as evidenced by another new title currently being developed by one of the company's partnered mobile gaming developers.
This was revealed in a recent financial report by DeNA, one of the most successful mobile gaming companies today. The financial report states that the company is hard at work to “launch a new and exciting smartphone game this fiscal year based on the globally popular Pokémon franchise in partnership with The Pokémon Company.” We can also expect more information about this new title to drop sometime later this year.
Nintendo and DeNA’s partnership can trace its roots back to March of 2015, with Nintendo’s first official mobile app, Miitomo, releasing the year after. Miitomo, however, was not really a game, but more of a social app, back when Mii characters from Nintendo were still the rage. This, of course, led to Nintendo's first actual title being released, Super Mario Run.
It’s worth noting that although DeNA shares a fruitful partnership with Nintendo, this is the first time the mobile gaming giant will handle the development of a Pokémon title. All of the past Pokémon games on mobile were developed by different companies; Pokémon Duel by Heroz, Pokémon Shuffle by Genius Sonority, Pokémon Quest by Game Freak, Pokémon: Magikarp Jump by Select Button, and of course, Pokémon Go by Niantic.
DeNA and Nintendo also previously worked on other Nintendo titles for mobile phones, such as the wildly successful Fire Emblem Heores, which is currently Nintendo’s most profitable mobile game. DeNA was in charge of the development for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp back in 2017. Nintendo and DeNA’s latest endeavor, Mario Kart Tour, is slated for release this year, with the closed beta applications announced a few weeks ago.
What remains to be seen is what type of Pokémon game DeNA will develop. There are still loads of interesting stuff they can do, so expect to hear more from us once any news drops. In the meantime, expect to see more Nintendo stuff get announced for mobile phones, as the company’s intent in breaking through the market cannot be stated enough.
