DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako thinks that there’s a big opportunity for Nintendo’s upcoming mobile games to reach a huge number of people. In an interview with alistdaily, Asako expressed his belief that “at least 150 or 200 million people” will try out these offerings when they’re ready for launch.

Asako told the site:

“Hundreds of millions of people have bought Nintendo consoles. Those are people who decided to spend a minimum of $200 just to get access to Nintendo IP. That number is already twice as big as the Candy Crush total user base. Not only that, every single person buying Nintendo devices spends an average of about $100 per year on software. So I have no question that when Nintendo’s mobile games come out, at least 150 or 200 million people will try it. These people are super core Nintendo fans who used to spending $150 to $250 just to access the content. Let’s say only 10% end up playing, and then those users pay $3 a month, that’s still perhaps a $60 million dollar a month game.”

alistdaily also asked about the marketing strategy he thinks will be necessary for Nintendo’s mobile games. Regarding this, Asako said:

“We know Nintendo IP is powerful, but we need to let people know the game is coming out. From that perspective I think mass marketing makes sense for Nintendo games. Usually you have more on digital marketing and later on the mass marketing kicks in, because you don’t want to start mass marketing until you’ve evaluated LTV (long-term value), because otherwise you might be wasting money. When you have strong IP like Nintendo you can kind of predict what kind of installs you can get, so to reach the level of mass-marketing isn’t that much of a risk.”

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DeNA West CEO on the Nintendo partnership, thinks titles could “change the way people play mobile games”

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 19 Comments

During Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2015, DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako further commented on DeNA’s partnership with Nintendo.

He said:

“The Nintendo deal is a huge, huge deal. Nintendo has the best IP, and IP that’s perfect matched to smartphones”.

Asako also spoke about how talks with Nintendo began years ago. Originally, DeNA hoped that Nintendo would be interested in releasing games on Mobage.

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DeNA: Partnership with Nintendo could “change the market”, Big N has best IPs

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 8 Comments

DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has shared a few more words about the company’s partnership with Nintendo.

“I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market. Nintendo has by far the best gaming IP,” Asako told PocketGamer. Asako added that “DeNA’s expertise is definitely backend.”

Nintendo will be handling the bulk of its mobile game development, but DeNA is pitching in on the technical end. DeNA will also be responsible for Nintendo’s new membership service, which opens this fall.

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Nintendo’s initial mobile games will be in different genres

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 16 Comments

We know that Nintendo is working with DeNA on games for mobile. We’ve also known for a few months now that the first game is coming this year, with four additional titles arriving by the end of March 2017.

DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has now indicated that the initial games will be in different genres. Asako told Pocket Gamer:

“I understand some people like RPGs, casual games. That’s why we decided to work together to create five games, hitting on different genre-utilizing IPs. We want to make sure out of those five IP that we can end up attracting hundreds of millions of people.”

Asako called its collaboration with Nintendo “the most crucial partnership” in DeNA’s history. He also says that it’s a challenge since “people are expecting a lot”.

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DeNA on the need to begin its Nintendo partnership with the right game, Big N’s IP strength, not too late with mobile, more

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 8 Comments

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.