Nintendo has confirmed it will soon be releasing content for mobile phones. And games could be part of it.
Japanese news outlet Nikkei first reported the news that Nintendo would produce smartphone content earlier this week, which Nintendo partially denied. Turns out they were both kinda right.
At a business presentation in Tokyo today, President Satoru Iwata has announced Nintendo's first real step towards smartphone development, talking about an app that could showcase "the value of our entertainment offerings, thus encouraging more people to participate in Nintendo platforms."
Which sounds a lot like an app for advertising Nintendo stuff. So far, so expected, and even that would be a big step for the company. But he later said this:
I have not given any restrictions to the development team, even not ruling out the possibility of making games or using our game characters. However, if you report that we will release Mario on smart devices, it would be a completely misleading statement.
Fine, but any Nintendo game on a phone - regardless of size or characters - would be a big deal given the company's traditional attitude towards the platform.
In terms of a release schedule, Iwata says "It is our intention to release some application on smart devices this year".
