Poké mon to Create Games for Next Nintendo System

TOKYO—Poké mon Co.'s chief executive said Tuesday his company plans to create games for Nintendo Co.'s next-generation system, which people familiar with the plans say is likely to meld features of traditional consoles and hand-held devices.

Tsunekazu Ishihara was speaking in an interview as his company, an affiliate of Nintendo that handles licensing of Poké mon characters, responds to the world-wide social phenomenon generated by its smartphone game "Poké mon Go," which the makers say has been downloaded more than 500 million times since its introduction in July.

Mr. Ishihara said sales of other Poké mon products have been lifted by the game's popularity, and the company is hoping to bring "Poké mon Go" to China and South Korea.

With higher global awareness of the characters, fans and analysts have been watching whether Poké mon Co. would roll out its games on new platforms such as Nintendo's next game system, code-named NX, which Nintendo has said it would start selling by March 2017. People familiar with the matter have said NX could be used both as a console with a television set and as a hand-held device.

"The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device," said Mr. Ishihara. "We will make games for the NX."

He declined to say whether the games would be available when the NX hardware first goes on sale.

Attractive games titles are critical for any videogame platform, and Poké mon has become one of the strongest global game franchises thanks to "Poké mon Go," which was produced by Poké mon Co. and developed by Niantic Inc., a spinout from Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

Although "Poké mon Go" is free to download, players can pay for in-game items such as incense to attract animated creatures, which are superimposed on real-world street images. Official revenue figures haven't been disclosed, but research company App Annie estimates that the game has earned more than $700 million—generating controversy along the way because of accidents a few players have suffered while concentrating on the game. Other revenue estimates are lower.

"I feel like the reaction we saw was 10 times or even 100 times bigger than we expected," Mr. Ishihara said.

He said more features were planned for "Poké mon Go," including player-to-player battles and character trades. But these features will come slowly to avoid overwhelming entry-level players, he added.

"Battling is a category that we do best at Poké mon, after all," Mr. Ishihara said, but "it's important to really carefully consider any feature that may increase the difficulty and raise the barrier to entry for more casual users."

As for expanding "Poké mon Go" to China, one of the world's largest smartphone games markets, Mr. Ishihara said he wanted to do so but he said issues with maps needed addressing first. Use of Google Maps, the service on which "Poké mon Go" is built, is limited in China and South Korea.

Nintendo owns 32% of Poké mon, and its stock price surged with the popularity of "Poké mon Go." Nintendo has said "Poké mon Go" would have a limited impact on its own earnings because it doesn't directly sell the game.

But information from videogame data provider Famitsu shows rising sales of Nintendo's five-year-old hand-held console, the 3DS, and the most recent Poké mon games for the device, released two years ago, both of which profit Nintendo directly. More Poké mon games are coming in November for the Nintendo 3DS system.

Analysts said "Poké mon Go" brought in new consumers and brought back old videogame fans. "Poké mon Go" is also available in many countries where Nintendo isn't operating its games business, such as Brazil, bringing in a further new market for Poké mon Co.

Mr. Ishihara declined to give specific figures, but he said sales of Poké mon products such as Nintendo games software and trading cards are in some cases running 30% to 50% ahead of what would normally be expected thanks to "Poké mon Go" publicity. He said that the effect was especially notable in the U.S., where the company ran an ad during the Super Bowl in February to mark Poké mon's 20th anniversary.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2016 08:15 ET (12:15 GMT)

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