Nintendo Announces 'Nintendo Mobile' Cellphone Deal

A report on the Nikkei Japan financial website has revealed that Nintendo has licensed its properties for use as mobile phone content, beginning with sound and graphics related to the Super Mario series, alongside information on forthcoming Nintendo games. According to the official Nintendo site, the service is named as Nintendo Mobile, and will begin on Japanese service provider NTT DoCoMo on October 17th, KDDI(au) on October 20th, and Vodafone on November 1st. Ring tones and animated images can be obtained via a subscription of ¥210 ($2) a month, but some data will be available to free. Although the offering so far is limited to images, ringtones, and information, with no mention of interactive content such as games, this nonetheless marks an important informational step for Nintendo in the mobile phone area, a particularly vital area in Japan, where companies such as Square Enix have innovated with games including Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII.