I was thinking the same thing. They would honestly run Nintendo's IP through the mud if left to their own devices. It should be made clear that the only reason Nintendo chose them is because they were persistant in telling Nintendo that they'd let Nintendo take charge and only offer support. They are very much the bitch in this relationship, as it should be.

Makes sense. The development talent is on Nintendo's side, and it would be a good way to craft a creative sandbox for minigames/weird/experimental stuff, along with more predictable money printers. DeNa is more about the infrastructure.

I was under the impression that development would be split between Nintendo and DeNA, in that they would work together on titles.
Seems safer this way.

You speak like nintendo needs more than a medium team working on it.

KLAMarine said: ReimTime said: Good. Not saying that other publishers would do terribly with Nintendo's IPs, but, ya know..........this is what Philips did to Zelda so Hey, don't be so quick to slam the CD-i games, they have lead to some amazing videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKywK-RtY9U

This is my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmIAM-hnEjQ

Hello, I'm right here. And even though I don't think you're legitimately interested, I will share my thoughts on the matter at the moment for the sake of establishing consistency.

1, I'm glad the games have a better chance of actually being good. Although Nintendo has certainly released stinkers before (see Pokemon Shuffle), I have more confidence in their ability and drive to make high quality and reasonably priced software than I have in any mobile developer I've sampled.

2, The great thing about mobile devices (as opposed to game consoles or gaming PCs) is that most gamers already have one. Nintendo wants to make exclusive games for PS4 or XBO? Shit, now I may have to buy one of those. Add another $400 to my hardware budget. Nintendo wants to make exclusive games for iOS/Android? Alright, whatever, I have an iPod. Regardless of how compelling their offerings are, it won't affect my hardware expenses. This is even good for PS4/XBO owners who don't want to buy Nintendo hardware! Sweet, more people enjoying Nintendo games, I've no problem with that.

3, Unlike many console gamers I'm not allergic to mobile games. The vast majority of them aren't very good, but there are a few decent games here and there which show that the format is capable of delivering enjoyable experiences.

4, Let's not kid ourselves: the EAD teams, Retro, Monolith Soft, etc probably aren't going to touch this platform. They'll stay focused on Nintendo's dedicated hardware, because Nintendo still wants to sell that rather than send it out to die. EAD Tokyo likes to mess around with stuff, it's always possible they'll make a smaller game on the side for mobile, but it would be merely a side project.

5, This does mean that some Nintendo studios will be working on mobile apps rather than 3DS/Wii U/NX software. It's impossible to know at this juncture just how that will affect Nintendo's first-party output on their hardware. Hopefully Nintendo will expand to make up for the differences, but I feel like many Nintendo fans have been saying hopefully they will expand for years now, so I won't hold my breath. I hope this doesn't mean the end of the bite-sized eShop games Nintendo has been experimenting with, like Pushmo and the upcoming Box Boy. Ultimately, as I said before, these types of games being released on iOS rather than on 3DS would have no effect on me personally, because I already own a mobile device, but it would be a shame to see Nintendo's talent drifting away from their platforms.

That's the catch-22 though, isn't it? You can't make good games without good developers. Every talented studio who spends their time making a game for mobile devices instead of for Nintendo platforms will be seen as a missed opportunity. Ideally, these will be games that are more appropriate for mobile than for consoles, and they will not demand large teams or long development periods from Nintendo. The plus side here is that DeNA will evidently perform upkeep on these games, keeping them updated as operating systems are revised, performing routine maintenance, and so on.

Ultimately I don't see this dramatically affecting Nintendo's output on their platforms. NX will still get 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Smash Bros, and whatever other franchises or new IP Nintendo feels are a good fit for the system. Maybe it won't get Flipnote Studio because EAD Tokyo opts to make some kind of Mario spin-off for mobile instead. I won't lose any sleep over it.

I'm honestly kind of put off by how overeager DeNA seems to be. I understand how excited they must be to have made this deal and to be able to discuss it, but they almost come off as leeches, gushing about how much money they're going to make from Nintendo's IP. It was a bit unsettling and it's one of the reasons I'm now glad they have very little to do with the development of these games.

Well, at least it gives me hope that Ninten can make a good standard of quality when they start releasing these kind of games.

Perhaps we may very well see most of their dormant and unique IPs such as Balloon Fight and the like.
Moreover, this provides an interesting crossover factor in their eShop.

This has certainly open up various intriguing possibilities. I could only hope they do not mismanage this opportunity.

Pretty sure EAD will be involved with development. It won't be a huge team, but make no mistake Nintendo is in this to make serious money. It's a huge opportunity for them.

EAD is an asset that they have that none of these other smartphone makers have, not using them would be akin to going into a basketball game and letting Michael Jordan sit on the bench instead of playing him.

Wikipedia shows the numbers up by about a 150 (when compared with last year) to 5213.  Not more than 3-4 years ago the number was in the mid 4000s. I think people are naive is they assume Nintendo hasn't planned for this.

Furthermore I think people are overestimating the amount of resourcing that will be required for Nintendo to make mobile games.  Nintendo has a 1001 mini-game and touch screen style games and mini-game proformas that they used for the DS, 3DS, Mario Party etc. titles, which if reskinned, updated and given some TLC would make great mobile games. This is something they could give to their new recruits, under the supervision of a couple of more senior developers, as a sort of training ground before they graduate to development of handheld, console or NX titles.