At a glance

Nintendo and DeNA forming new joint venture company Nintendo Systems
Nintendo Systems will be a subsidiary of the platform holder, focus on R&D for digital services
New company will be based in Tokyo, begin operations in April 2023

Nintendo and DeNA are working together on the formation of a new joint venture company that will aim to “strengthen the digitisation” of Nintendo’s business.

The new company will be called Nintendo Systems and will operate as a subsidiary of the platform holder, since Nintendo is providing 80% of the capital required.

Nintendo Systems remit will be research and development, as well as “the creation of value-added services.”

The joint venture builds on Nintendo’s seven-year partnership with DeNA co-developing mobile games and growing the company’s ecosystem beyond its own platforms, linking them together with users’ Nintendo Accounts.

Scheduled to begin operations in April 2023, it will be based in Tokyo and led by director and president Tetsuya Sasaki.

The partnership was announced alongside Nintendo’s latest financial results, but the platform holder said it will have no effect on the current fiscal year. The impact will incorporated into financial forecasts “from the next onwards.”

Since 2015, Nintendo and DeNA have produced six games together: Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour and Pokémon Masters.

Fire Emblem is by far the most successful, having been the first to reach $1 billion in revenue. However, other titles have not been quite as lucrative, with Mario Kart Tour bringing in $293 million and Animal Crossing making $287.6 million.

Nintendo has experimented with making mobile games in partnership with other companies, but these have struggled to bear fruit. Dr Mario World, a collaboration with Line, was shut down after two years, while the Cygames-developed Dragalia Lost will cease operations later this month.