All it is, is NIntendo searching new ways to draw people in to wanting to actually buy Nintendo consoles to play REAL Nintendo games. They even openly discussed this as a possibility like a year ago. It's hardly a surprise. Shallow little mobile experiences (which most of them are anyway), with some Nintendo IP paint, to whet new prospective buyers' appetites for wanting to dive into real, honest to god Nintendo gaming.

Not a bad thing at all. Just a new revenue stream and a new method of advertising.

P.S. To those who seem to be utterly oblivious, this does NOT, in any way shape or conceivable form, mean that Nintendo is "going third party". They are still and shall remain a first party console maker. Iwata even said "we're more dedicated now than ever to dedicated game consoles". There will still be Nintendo systems. The next one, as I've been assuming for quite some time now, will likely be unveiled in part next year, and actually released in 2017.

So no. This isn't going to lead to fanboys "finally" getting to play Mario on Playstation/Xbox. Sorry kiddos. ;)

Why is that such a spur up some people's rear ends though really?

If casual iPhone gamers can enjoy Nintendo content now, I don't think its neccessarily all that taboo for sh*t on other fanbases. 

It's clear if anything today that the 90s/2000s are over. 

First step towards Nintendo going 3rd party.

It was bound to happen eventually, the company executives just dont know how (or dont care) to stay competitive in TODAY's gaming industry

Some other interesting things of note about this deal.

Nintendo owns 10% of DeNa now, which cost them $180 million dollars. They are the largest shareholder now of the company outside of the founder who owns 13%.

DeNA also purchased $180 million worth of Nintendo which amounts to a 1.2% stake. 

DeNA mentioned that they have been pursuing this deal with Nintendo since 2010. So five years in the making. Guess Nintendo finally caved.

:o

Where did you get that???

I was expecting melodrama and was not dissapointed. This is good for all involved. And no it wont devalute Ninty IPs what a ridiculous thing to think. If those CD-i games couldnt devalue Zelda then nothing will. the dedicated handheld market is getting smaller not bigger and there isnt much Ninty can do to slow it down. They are going TO the casual market instead of sitting around thinking they will come to them, they wont. This is a good move

Well to be fair nobody owned a CD-i while 100's of millions own smartphones, so the potential to devalue ip is much larger

But I agree, as long as this doesn't take resources away from their dedicated hardware and they continue to pump out excellent games then I'm completely fine with this.

I believe Nintendo is trying to use mobile gaming along with Quality of Life to appeal to the expanded audience they had on Wii/DS and their dedicated hardware will be for their core fanbase.

Also it should be clarified that Nintendo isn't merely "farming out" their IP to DeNA. This is not a licensing deal in that sense. 

They will be jointly developed games, Iwata cited for example that the games need to be of high quality but that in the smartphone market you can't just "finish" a game and release it, you need to continually add content to it (bleh ... microtransactions).

Likely what I think will happen here is Nintendo will design the core engines/gameplay mechanics to ensure good quality and then DeNA will largely be responsible for making sure the games have additional content added to them as time goes on.

Yes. In fact, Iwata clarify that Nintendo will be in charge to develop the interface (game) that will interact with the consumer, while DeNa will be in charge of the server and online parts.

This is a great move by Nintendo.