Game Console Company, Nintendo Co will for the first time have games that can be played on gaming hardware that wasn’t made by them. In a latest development that is limited to China alone, Nintendo has initiated the distribution of their classic Wii and Gamecube titles via Nvidia Corp.’s gaming tablet Shield. This statement was made by Nintendo late on Wednesday. The company further added that the device was launched into the market on Tuesday and is available for sale in mainland China. It comes with three classic Nintendo games, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Punch-Out, games that have already been on the market for over 10 years now.
This is a very significant shift in their mode of operation for Nintendo which has for decades now kept all their home-grown games exclusively for its customers in Japan. The need arose for Nintendo to adopt a market shift after China surpassed the U.S as the largest gaming market in the world/
In a statement issued in Chinese, Nintendo said that “We’re very happy to have this opportunity to let our entertainment products bring joy to the vast body of Chinese players.” The company added that more classic titles would be released by next year and would undergo visual upgrade. It said that “Due to Nvidia’s excellent staff, these games will get high-resolution ports.”
A spokesman for the company mentioned that this agreement is limited to China alone though and the Nvidia Shield, thus it doesn’t indicate a wider strategic change for the company. He added that Nintendo is still working relentlessly to bring its latest Nintendo Switch hybrid console to China and is not associated in any way to their partnership with Nvidia.
Until recently, most of the games developed by Nintendo have been illegal in China, with game lovers in the country only getting to enjoy popular games such as Super Mario and Donkey Kong. Mainland China houses personal-computer and mobile gaming titles like Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds and Honour of Kings. According to statistics, the gaming market in China generated $24.6 billion in revenue last year, slightly overtaking the $24.1 billion that was generated in the U.S