Nintendo to launch its first smartphone game by the end of this year

New Delhi: Nintendo, which announced its plans to develop games for mobile devices in March, has revealed that its first smartphone game will be released by the end of this year.

Regarding the number of the titles, Nintendo plans to release approximately five titles by the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of March 2017.

"You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business," said Nintendo.

Nintendo believes that since the game business on smart devices is already severely competitive, even with highly popular IP, the odds of success are quite low if consumers cannot appreciate the quality of a game.

"If we were simply to port software that already has a track record on a dedicated game system, it would not match the play styles of smart devices, and the appropriate business models are different between the two, so we would not anticipate a great result. If we did not aim to achieve a significant result, it would be meaningless for us to do it at all. Accordingly, we are going to carefully select appropriate IP and titles for our smart device deployment," said the company.

Nintendo repeatedly resisted investor calls to shift focus to smartphone games to boost profitability, until it unveiled a gaming app partnership in March with DeNA Co Ltd.

On Thursday, it said would also branch out to theme parks through a tie-up with Universal Parks & Resorts.

The newly venturesome approach comes as Nintendo's Wii U console lags behind Sony Corp's PlayStation and Microsoft Corp's XBox, while the rise of smartphone games has also led to a decline in customers.

Though console sales are slowing, Nintendo forecast operating profit would roughly double to 50 billion yen ($419.71 million) in the year through next March, ahead of the 39 billion yen average forecast of 20 analysts to Thomson Reuters data.

Nintendo Chief Executive Satoru Iwata said that outlook assumed a "certain level of profit" from the DeNA partnership.

"We definitely want one game this year. And after that we want to come out with new applications, and make sure each one is a hit," he told reporters at an earnings briefing in Osaka.

(With inputs from Reuters)