Sources close to Nintendo have confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the Japanese company is using the veteran franchise The Legend of Zelda to expand their mobile business, in another collaboration with smartphone developer DeNA. The game is expected to arrive after the release of the Animal Crossing mobile title later this year. The news outlet hasn’t given any more details about gameplay, graphic appearance, or the cost of the app, but if the information is to be believe, we should not wait too much time to get the first official presentation.
It’s not surprising that Nintendo has chosen The Legend of Zelda to keep expanding their mobile business, since the Japanese company also released their latest Nintendo Switch console on the back of the latest Zelda title as the main launch title. And to this day, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still one of the favourite choices of buyers to get for their new console, as it can be seen in any weekly sales report.
Nintendo has tried different tactics to get advantage of the mobile market so far. The first mobile title related to a Nintendo franchise was last summer’s mega-hit Pokemon GO, but the company only had a small participation on the benefits from that game, which was developed and published by Niantic. It was a little later when Super Mario Run would arrive to the market with a business model that allowed players to play the first levels for free, but it demanded a payment of $10 to unlock the rest of the game.
Despite the title not meeting Nintendo’s business projections, the Japanese company has declared that they prefer Super Mario Run’s payment model to free-to-play titles like the recent Fire Emblem Heroes, even when the latter has proved to be a success from day one.
However, mobile titles are still a small part of the Nintendo’s financial model, adding only $176.4 million to their revenue according to the latest fiscal year report, but market analysts believe the number will grow exponentially in the current year.
This coming E3 would be the perfect chance for Nintendo to announce their mobile expansion, so we’ll stay alert for any news related to this Legend of Zelda mobile title.
