Japanese mobile game firm DeNA made it clear to investors this week that it intends to pour more resources into its partnership with Nintendo as it prepares to help ship Super Mario Run on iOS next month.
This provides some context on how the company plans to operate going forward, and reinforces how highly it values its partnership with Nintendo.
Just weeks ago DeNA seemingly pulled out of the West entirely by shutting down its San Francisco studio. This week, it offered a presentation to investors that it does still plan to operate in the West, but will seek to do so through “collaboration with external partners” rather than trying to run its own development operations there.
The company will also aim to be “reallocating resources, with a focus on the Nintendo partnership” as it continues to try and transition its business away from browser-based games towards native mobile games.
Japanese mobile game industry consultant (and occasional Gamasutra blogger) Dr. Serkan Toto attended DeNA’s investor briefing, and took to Twitter today to share some tidbits — including DeNA’s claim that it has roughly 100 people working on the upcoming Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem mobile games.
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2016