DeNA on the need to begin its Nintendo partnership with the right game, Big N’s IP strength, not too late with mobile, more
GamesBeat spoke with DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako following Nintendo and DeNA’s business and capital alliance announcement today. Topics included how talks between the two sides evolved, the need to kick off its partnership with the right game, the strength of Nintendo’s IPs, how it’s not too late for the company to enter the mobile market, and plenty more.
We’ve rounded up Asako’s various comments below. Be sure to check out GamesBeat’s full post here.
On how DeNA has wanted to be on top of the mobile business…
“Mobile gaming is our core business, and we definitely wanted to be the No. 1 mobile gaming company in the world — we’ve wanted to be a dominant player. We were originally focused on the feature phone space and then shifted over to smart phones, and now [we have] a lot of initiative in both the domestic and international markets. But we really want to be leading player.”‘
On how DeNA had put a lot of thought into how it could move into the top position…
“Internally, we had a lot of strategic meeting. The one big solution was always that there’s a giant IP holder in the market that hasn’t stepped into the smartphone environment. Really, the reason they were convinced that they wanted to work with us was that we were so determined to work with them that we have really been talking to them since 2010. Yes, we were talking to them for a long, long time. Finally, Nintendo became ready to do this. And we were ready the whole time.”
On how DeNA’s unique approach toward a partnership was one of the key reasons that Nintendo agreed…
“I think many people went to talk to them saying something like, ‘Can I have Mario? Or can I have Zelda?’ — a lot of people wanted a shortcut to get the business. They need to be straight at what they really wanted to get at. We’re not doing this just for this year or next year — we really want to be a leading player.
“One thing that we’re always thinking about is how can we build a structural advantage over other people. When you look at other successful companies, like King or Supercell, a lot of them are using one successful title and then using that game engine for other titles. I think the people out there see that as not really a strong structure to be successful for a long time.”
On how the relationship between Nintendo and DeNA evolved…
“Our approach was more about looking at their strengths, and then looking at our strengths, and when we get together we can do something bigger. Our initial discussions were around memberships and backend systems. Through this discussion we said that if we build this backend, we should obviously work on a game. And if we’re making a game, we should use Nintendo IPs.”
On how DeNA has a willingness to take care of the behind-the-scenes business of mobile gaming, which was one of the primary reasons Nintendo went forward with the partnership…
“Looking at successful players like King or Supercell, they have a massive user base, and they’re very successful at creating content. But they haven’t really built a backend system in the way we have done, and I think that’s the key part. When you look at successful players in the mobile gaming space today, not many of them have created backend platform systems.”
“Not many people talk about this but DeNA created the platform called Mobage. Also, we started our business in VC business — that was basically a platform. DeNA has been focused on mobile platform business, with one of them happened to be games.
“Backend is not something people see every day. We’re willing to help them build that really sophisticated backend structure. It is not a sexy part. But we’re willing to do it.”
On the need to begin the partnership with the right game…
“I’ve wanted to create something globally successful, not only for kids, but for mid-aged people and beyond. The game should attract a huge range of people. We wanted to get a huge audience like Candy Crush — like 100 million users. We wanted to create something with that kind of DAU [daily active user] base.
“For this, I think the solution is not coming out with 10 or 20 games right away. We should pick the right game. We should actually create a smartphone-specific game that requires day-to-day social interaction. It’s not just porting a Wii U game out to smartphones. But actually properly design a smartphone game.”
On the strength of Nintendo’s various IPs…
“I think with the strong IPs they have, and their strong game operation expertise we have, I don’t think we’re dreaming [about reaching] 100 million DAU,” he said. “And by having that we can do — we wanted to get there. I think that King has that network today. With Nintendo, there’s a huge possibility of that.”
On how the partnership won’t change what DeNA is working on…
“This will not impact anything that we’re doing. Of course, we’ve allocated our best people to this — it’s a huge deal and we’re superexcited. But it is important for us to be able to build our own games and continue doing all the parts of our business.”
On how Asako doesn’t see this as Nintendo being too late to the mobile game…
“Some people say, ‘Why did it take so long?’ When you look at the mobile gaming market, I don’t think it’s too late to do this kind of partnership. This is still the early stage of the market. The Western market is growing. It used to be a $2 billion to $3 billion market, but today it’s a $9 billion market. I think it’s going to grow. Even the Japanese market is going to grow.”
On how Nintendo will have at least some say in projects beyond this…
“Nintendo is now a 10 percent shareholder in DeNA. So they have a lot to say. Ten percent is actually pretty huge: Next to our founder, Namba, who owns 15 percent, they’re going to be the second-largest shareholder. It’s a big deal.”
