Japanese Companies to Create Phone Gaming

Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console

It was bound to happen. While there have been cell phone games available on smart phones in particular for some time now, they have been very rudimentary compared to what is still available on game consoles. I'm actually surprised that more ads do not use games to keep the viewers involved.

Recently Japanese game giant, Nintendo announced a partnership with DeNa, a company specializing in mobile and online game services. While Nintendo will continue producing console games and the accompanying software and hardware, this is strong statement about the future of gaming. Will this mean 3D games on the small screens? How can games be made to adapt to touch screens? It seems to me Nintendo should partner with one of the cell phone companies too so that special components or apps can be developed.

According to a report by Charles Herald, about.com's Wii tech expert, Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, said this did not mean that Nintendo's console business was suffering. It was simply a move into a new field.

Iwata says that these phone games will not simply be ports of Nintendo's console software: "For smart devices, even in the case where we utilize the same IP, we will create completely new game software that will perfectly match the play styles of smart devices."

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The two presidents of Nintendo and DeNa are working to replace Club Nintendo (which will be closed down soon) with a fuller and more engaging membership club. Obviously Nintendo sees big bucks on the horizon with this move towards the burgeoning market of cell phone users, particularly when this also includes the users of tablets and the larger smart phones.

While it is unknown when we will get more information about these plans, there is a large trade show coming up in June - E3 Trade Show, and it is known that Club Nintendo will be shut down a few weeks before. It seems likely that there will be further announcements at this show June 16 - 18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.