Nintendo Smartphone Games Launching Soon? The Latest News & Updates Here!

Nintendo's desire to bring video games into the mobile arena has long been anticipated, and now, it's all happening.

In a recent financial report, president and CEO Satoru Iwata has informed that the producer of "Mario Kart" will spearhead the development of the company's smartphone games, IGN reported. According to the outlet, Nintendo aims to release its first mobile game by the end of the year.

IGN is convinced that Iwata might be referring to Hideki Konno, as the latter had produced several games in the popular racing franchise.

Meanwhile, The Verge noted that Iwata plans to have approximately five mobile titles released by March 2017. That's still a long way to go, but Nintendo appears to pick quality over quantity at any time of the day.

Nintendo's move in the mobile market is carefully calculated, as Iwata thinks that even very popular IPs may not end up very successful -- specially when consumers "cannot appreciate the quality of a game."

The Verge took note of Iwata's statement, which says, "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."

Previously, we've reported about Nintendo's development of a new game platform codenamed "NX." This alleged console-portable hybrid, planned for introduction as a brand new concept, is expected to replace the reportedly-flopped Wii U.

Iwata teased on the idea, "If you only expand upon existing hardware, it's dull... In some shape or form, we're always thinking about how we want to surprise players as well as our desire to change each person's video gaming life."

With regards to finances, it's also been revealed that Nintendo saw its first annual profit since 2011, Quartz cited. According to the outlet, Nintendo has partnered with Universal Studios to bring its themes to the latter's attraction parks.

The Japanese gaming giant posted an earning of 24.8 billion yen ($208 million) for the fiscal year, Time reported.

Today, Universal Studios is based in the U.S., Japan and Singapore, Quartz noted, while expansions in China and Russia are also planned.

Nintendo has also established partnership with DeNA for the creation of a cross-platform membership service, expected to work on existing consoles and mobile devices.

In the meantime, check out Nintendo's "Splatoon" Direct below.