Nintendo to make smartphone games. Sort of.

Reports suggest Nintendo will announce a new smartphone venture this week that will see demos of its console games released on mobile.

This information comes from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei, rather than Nintendo, as translated by Dr Serkan Toto, who has proven to be a solid source of games news from Japan in the past. Nevertheless, we have a large pinch of salt at the ready.

According to the report, Nintendo is planning to release mini-games and playable demos of console titles on smartphones in order to market games that can only be purchased on Wii U and 3DS.

The idea is to give smartphone owners – presumably Android and iOS users – a taste of the experiences they’ll find on Nintendo’s platforms in an effort to convert them.

Nikkei reports this content will be free and that Nintendo is not planning to offer paid or fermium smartphone games at this time.

There will also be an official Nintendo app with more information on game releases, including videos. It’s worth noting that Nintendo has previously said it plans to develop a Miiverse app that interacts with its 3DS and Wii U social network.

These announcements, if they happen, are expected to emerge from Nintendo’s investor briefing on Thursday. 

The report follows poor financials that saw Nintendo predict it would make an end of year loss of £146m. Shortly after, the company’s shares fell by 18 per cent.