For the longest time, Nintendo games have always been Nintendo-only. Other company's games might go cross-platform or make a cameo somewhere else. Not Nintendo- you wanted to play a Nintendo game, you bought a Nintendo console.
Except, now Nintendo's thrown itself into an entirely new arena- mobile games. The company has confirmed that it will producing five new smartphone games in a first-ever mobile launch from the title. The five games will all be launched within a window of two years (that is, by the end of March of 2017), and the first will be available on mobile platforms by the end of this year.
Nintendo hasn't revealed what any of these games are, specifically, but anyone could guess that they'll probably feature the major Nintendo IPs that represent the company. Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Starfox, Zelda, etc. It would seem a little beside the point if Nintendo went to all the trouble of making mobile games and didn't use any Nintendo characters.
According to an official statement from Nintendo, the mobile games are meant to "encourage a greater number of people to associate with Nintendo IP, to become familiar with the charms of video games and, eventually, to explore more premium experiences on our dedicated game systems."
Will this affect Nintendo's current plans for the future? Right now, the company's been hard at work on a secretive new console, the Nintendo NX (just a codename for now, kind of like how the Nintendo Revolution eventually became the Nintendo Wii). Nintendo revealed that they plan to have the NX on the market by the end of 2016 and that they plan for it to be a tough competitor with its peers- the Xbox One and Playstation 4. That's a lot of new territory for Nintendo to cover. Hopefully between the NX, the mobile games, and of course the Wii U and 3DS, the company isn't stretched too thin.
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