Nintendo, Square Enix Partner For Pokémon Mobile App

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Originally reported on Gamasutra

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Japanese consumer magazine Famitsu has revealed details of a new mobile phone-based collaboration between Square Enix and Nintendo, following a recent warming of the relationship between the two companies.

The application in question combines an email application with virtual pet-like interaction abilities, and features various Pokémon characters heavily. Although Nintendo has been relatively reticent to enter the burgeoning mobile content market, which is particularly active in Japan, it has recently started to enter the segment, with the recent licensing of ring tones and animated images for a 'Nintendo Mobile' service on Japanese cellphone providers, and now this announcement of a Square collaboration.

This marks another uptake in the firms' relationships, ollowing a nadir in the two company’s interactions during the Nintendo 64 era. Both publishers have since begun to work together again, with Square Enix publishing Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube and a number of portable releases from the series’ history. The company is also working directly with Nintendo properties for the first time since collaborative effort Super Mario RPG on the SNES, in the technically advanced Nintendo DS title Mario Basket 3 on 3.

Speculation has been rife that Square Enix will also announce high-profile titles for the Revolution, but like most other publishers, the firm is not expected to reveal anything of its plans for the new system until next month's E3 Expo in Los Angeles.