Nintendo Teams with DeNA for Big Move Into Casual Gaming
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| Casey Fleser |
You may know DeNA, if you know them at all, as the folks behind the G.I. Joe and Transformers mobile app games. You can now add Mario and every other Nintendo IP ever to that list, though this partnership is all about creating new games designed to be apps, and not simply ports of existing titles.
Silicon Era reports that Nintendo wishes to avoid the kinds of games that require you to purchase lots of in-game extras, and that “Nintendo will be handling the planning and design for their smartphone titles. Meanwhile, DeNA will handle server development, daily operations, and user analysis, since those are the company’s strengths.” However, there will be a new rewards program to replace Club Nintendo.
Considering that Tetris and Dr. Mario are in many ways the original casual games, I think this could play to Nintendo’s strengths. They’d be crazy NOT to do a Mario running game, of course, since running and jumping are primary traits of his – but I think there’s hope for some actual creativity here too.
h/t SlyDante777
About The Author
Luke Y. Thompson has been writing professionally about movies and pop-culture since 1999, and has also been an actor in some extremely cheap culty and horror movies you will probably never hear much about (he is nonetheless mostly proud of them, as he met his wife on one). As editor of The Robot's Voice since 2012, he can take the blame for the majority of the site's content, all of which he creates because he loves you very, very much. (Although he loves nachos more. Sorry.) Prior to TRV, Luke wrote for publications that include the New Times LA, Los Angeles CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Geekweek, GeekChicDaily, The L.A. Times, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Nerdist