DeNA has no plans to develop games for Nintendo Switch and reveals that at least 100 people are working on Super Mario Run.
Thus, it is believed that this new information sheds some light on the relationship between Nintendo and DeNA and its attitude to the Nintendo Switch. This news comes from their financial report, for the second quarter of fiscal year and shared by Dr. Serkan Toto. Apparently, this company is relocating resources to its partnership with the Big N, and applications of the latter have the “highest priority”.
It is revealed that there are currently 100 members of the team working on Super Mario Run, in addition to mobile versions of Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing. Now, the work of DeNA in relation to the game plumber is in terms of client and server. Its goal is to have it ready later this year, as you will recall, it will be launched in December.
2) During the Q&A, DeNA said it will reallocate resources to the Nintendo partnership (which also sounded like it’ll continue beyond 2017).
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) November 4, 2016
3) DeNA sees joint development of Nintendo apps as its “highest priority”. They want to see them become profitable outside Japan as well.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) November 4, 2016
4) DeNA has ~100 people working internally on Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem+Animal Crossing now. More can be added, depending on each case.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) November 4, 2016
At the moment it is not known under what business model titles of Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing will be released, but Toto thinks it will be Free-to-Play. However, nothing is certain and it could also be launched as Free-to-Start, a mode that is usually applied by Nintendo for some eShop titles of N3DS and under which Super Mario Run will be launched.
Now, DeNA also spoke about Nintendo Switch. As you may recall, when it was announced that 48 companies will support this system, the name of this company appeared also. That made some people think that it was developing for that platform, and that some games like the above could be adapted.
8) As for the Switch, DeNA emphasized they are “only” Nintendo’s platform/account partner, not a software provider. //end
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) November 4, 2016
However, DeNA says that they are merely a Nintendo’s platform/account partner. That is, they are not creators of software itself, and that is why they are not developing games for Nintendo Switch. As they are supposed to be working on Super Mario Run, but these statements are somewhat confusing, so do not worry about it yet.
It gives us the impression that DeNA actually develops network services and servers of this game, a task that will also be performed on the Nintendo Switch. Obviously, this does not preclude an adaptation, as there is a rumor of Super Mario Run coming to Nintendo Switch.
