Nintendo, Cygames Partner To Launch Dragalia Lost Rpg App This Summer

Nintendo and Cygames announced a new partnership on Friday. As part of the partnership, Nintendo will acquire 5% of Cygames' issued stock.

The partnership is also producing a new action RPG smartphone game app titled Dragalia Lost. Nintendo has been co-developing the game with Cygames, and both companies will jointly operate the game.



Nintendo will release the game in summer 2018 in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, with a planned global release. Nintendo will handle the game's release in North America and Europe.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper previously reported in December that Nintendo was seeking to establish more tie-ups with smartphone game developers, in light of its mobile game schedule falling behind. The report claimed that GungHo Online Entertainment (Puzzle & Dragons) has been in discussions with Nintendo, but GungHo has denied that discussions took place.

In 2015, Nintendo partnered with DeNA to lend its intellectual property for the creation and launch of "approximately" five smartphone titles by March 2017. Through that partnership, Nintendo and DeNA have released the Super Mario Run, Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp games.

Cygames was established in 2011, and the company has produced games such as Rage of Bahamut and Granblue Fantasy. Cygamesestablished an anime division in March 2015 and the anime production subsidiary Cygames Pictures in April 2016. The company has worked on anime productions inspired by its games including Rage of Bahamut Genesis, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, and Granblue Fantasy the Animation. The game developer has also already invested in production committees for television and theatrical anime such as Yuri!!! on Ice and In This Corner of the World.

Cygames' parent company CyberAgent established the CA-Cygames Anime Fund last June, which is investing 3 billion yen (about US$27.3 million) in anime IP through the fund. Cygames and publisher Kodansha formed a business partnership to launch the new Cycomi manga label last May.