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What to make, then, of yesterday's Nintendo announcement? A certain amount of shock met the news that Nintendo was partnering with DeNA and making the move into mobile gaming development, but it could hardly be called a surprise. This is a company, after all, that used to run a taxi firm as its playing card business sprawled outwards in the 60s, and has a proud history of the unexpected. But even though yesterday's news marks perhaps the most significant shift since Nintendo moved out of the arcades and into the home with the NES, it's a move born of nothing more than common sense. In Japan, the console market is flatlining, while mobile gaming is booming. What's more, there's not the slightly prissy attitude held by more traditional audiences towards the mobile market in Japan: the idea of a hardcore game on mobile is something that's more readily embraced, and Nintendo joining forces with one of the biggest players in that space not only makes sense, it's perhaps somewhat overdue.
What the partnership means for western audiences is a little fuzzier. The timing, location and style of yesterday's announcement suggested this was very much a Japanese deal for the Japanese market, and we may not see a knock-on effect over here until well after those first Nintendo-developed games find their way onto handsets. Indeed, the biggest concession made to those tuning in from afar was the announcement of the NX, the next dedicated games machine Nintendo has been leaving clues about for well over a year, and which we already have a decent handle on.
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