Nintendo has finally made its long awaited entry into the smartphone gaming market. At an investor briefing in Tokyo, the Japanese gaming giant unveiled 'Miitomo', a free-to-play title that will make use of the brand's popular 'Mii' virtual avatars.
According to The Wall Street Journal's live coverage of the event, Nintendo didn't divulge what kind of gameplay style the app will have, but did mention that players can use their Mii avatars to communicate with another. The title will feature a cash shop where gamers can purchase add-ons for their Miis.
The company originally planned to release the title by the end of this year, but shifted the launch date to March 2016 to give ample time to promote it. Miitomo is the first of five games that Nintendo is working on in collaboration with Japanese mobile giant DeNA. The other four titles, one of which is rumored to feature Nintendo's iconic Super Mario character, will be slowly rolled throughout next year.
The partnership between the two, was announced last March. DeNA had this to say of the union back then:
"Both companies will develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo's [intellectual property], including its iconic game characters, for smart devices, The alliance is intended to complement Nintendo's dedicated video game systems business and extend Nintendo's reach into the vast market of smart-device users worldwide."
Nintendo didn't share much about its future in the home console business. The company is working on a new system tentatively called the 'NX', a successor to their underperforming current gen console, the Wii U.
Legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamato had this to say about the in-development system, We are going to be far more aggressive in using our IP, and not just stop with licensing, as in the past. The first example is Amiibo. We want our IP to better reach more children, and smart devices is just one vehicle."
