Nintendo Is Forming A New Company To "Strengthen The Digitalization" Of Its Business

Nintendo has officially announced the formation of a new joint venture company alongside mobile games developer DeNA Co Ltd. The subsidiary company will be known as Nintendo Systems Co Ltd and will be focused on "the development and operation of services to strengthen the digitalization" of Nintendo's business.

It will open in Tokyo in April 2023, and 80% of it will be owned by Nintendo. DeNA has been responsible for the development of a number of Nintendo mobile games since 2015--including popular titles such as Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, and Mario Kart Tour--but it'll be working on more than just smartphone games in this new venture.

According to Nintendo, DeNA will also assist in "the joint development and operation of membership services for various devices" while also creating "value-added services" for users. "With the objective to strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo’s business, the joint venture company will research and develop, as well as create value-added services to further reinforce Nintendo’s relationship with consumers," Nintendo said.

While Nintendo mobile games have made an impressive $160 million during the first six months of its current fiscal year, or 3.5% of its overall sales for that period, the figure does pale in comparison to Activision and Take-Two's progress. Activision, which owns King, reported $932 million for Q3 2022 and Take-Two's Zynga division pulled in $730 million for the same period. In comparison, Nintendo mobile games have earned over $1.8 billion across several years, with Fire Emblem Heroes being responsible for $1 billion of that sum alone.

In other Nintendo news, the company has reported that it has sold 114 million Switch consoles as of September 30. While the hybrid console is on track to overtake the lifetime sales of the Game Boy, Nintendo is expecting to sell fewer units during the current fiscal year due to various factors such as the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.