After years of resistance from Nintendo, the gaming giant has finally decided to bring its Nintendo IP to mobile devices. In an interview with TIME Magazine, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata discussed the company’s plans to bring its franchises to smart devices as well as why Nintendo has decided to do so now. Iwata says that despite the reluctance to pull the trigger on mobile games, Nintendo has been constantly researching ways to make use of smart devices:

“In the digital world, content has the tendency to lose value, and especially on smart devices, we recognize that it is challenging to maintain the value of our content. It is because of this recognition that we have maintained our careful stance. However, we have been seriously and continuously considering how we should make use of smart devices. We made the announcement yesterday because we finally found solutions to the problems we identified. More specifically, we will not merely port games developed for our dedicated game systems to smart devices just as they are—we will develop brand new software which perfectly matches the play style and control mechanisms of smart devices.” — Satoru Iwata

Iwata believes that by introducing Nintendo IP to mobile devices, people who do not have an interest in video game consoles could eventually become fans of Nintendo’s dedicated game systems:

“We have come to the stage where we can say that we will be able to develop and operate software which, in the end, will not hurt the value of Nintendo IP but, rather, will become an opportunity for the great number of people around the world who own smart devices—but do not have interest in dedicated video game hardware—to be interested in Nintendo IP and eventually to become fans of our dedicated game systems. Yesterday, we finally came to the stage where we were able to announce the alliance with DeNA, which plays a key role in these solutions.” — Satoru Iwata

What do you think of Nintendo’s plans to bring Nintendo IP to mobile devices? Which series might work the best with smartphones and tablets? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: TIME

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