Coming Soon To A Mobile Device Near You: Mario & Gang No Longer Nintendo Exclusives

For forever and a day, Nintendo has said that the world would never see its games on non-Nintendo platforms. That means no Mario, no Donkey Kong, no Zelda on anything but the company’s consoles and handhelds.

In a stunning reversal of policy, the company announced that it has joined up with fellow Japanese tech company DeNA to bring Nintendo’s cast of characters and gaming universe to non-company mobile devices. The new partnership hopes to have offerings for sale sometime in the Fall of 2015.

Mario’s coming for you, mobile

Nintendo emphasized that this seismic shift in policy does not mean that it will stop designing and building its own gaming hardware. In fact, company president Satoru Iwata said that it has its next game platform, code-named NX, already in development, and that the company will share more details about it in 2016.

The company looks at its policy alteration more as a move of expansion than anything else. However, industry analysts say that Nintendo’s move is tardy and that it is a reaction to a shrinking customer base. David Cole, from game research firm DFC Intelligence, said, ““Clearly the issue for Nintendo was they were losing that customer base they had — preteens and kids who get introduced to Nintendo products at an early age. Now these kids are getting introduced to mobile.”

Late or not, Nintendo clearly hopes its 180° turn will see a bump up in exposure.