Wall Street Journal: Nintendo Seeks More App Developer Partnerships

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

GungHo has previously developed the Puzzle & Dragons Z and Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Brothers Editiongames for the Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo released both Nintendo 3DS games in the West as a bundle in May 2015.

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.

Nintendo launched its first smartphone game, Miitomo, in March 2016 and it has reached more than 10 million users worldwide. Super Mario Run launched for iOS devices in December 2016 and for Android devices in March, and it topped Apple's list of free iPhone games in 2017. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp became available worldwide on November 22, and has at least 15 million downloads worldwide. The game is Nintendo's second-largest mobile game launch next to Super Mario Run.