Nintendo’s announcement back in 2015 that it would be bringing its properties over to smartphones was a major one- Nintendo has famously resisted releasing any of its software, or licensing its properties, to any platform that is not its own. The announcement marked a major change for the Japanese giant- though, with them announcing that they would be working with Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNa in this venture, it also seemed as though they would not be doing a lot of the actual grunt work on their mobile game development themselves.
Three years later, Nintendo’s record with smartphone gaming is mixed- while Fire Emblem Heroes has done well, Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing Pocket Camp both underperformed. Apparently, this has been enough for Nintendo to consider working with other mobile game development outfits too, with Nintendo’s Tatsumi Kimishima confirming their intent to look for other partners to work with in addition to DeNa, and also recommitting to 2-3 mobile games a year.
Whether or not their mobile games find the kind of success so many expected remains to be seen- their next tryst with the mobile market will be a new Mario Kart game coming exclusively for smartphones.