This is according to a report from The Wall Street Journal (via GameSpot) in which the publication claims that Nintendo is looking to work with more mobile game developers to create more games. Apparently the company believes that by working with more developers, they’ll be able to release more games quickly, although it seems that they’re not really looking for the same level of partnership/investment that they have with their current partner, DeNA.
Just last month Nintendo announced their plans to release as many as 2-3 mobile games a year. So far Nintendo’s mobile releases have been somewhat mixed. While most of them have received generally positive reviews, they don’t seem to have the same lasting power that other more popular mobile titles have.
For example while Super Mario Run was considered one of Google’s most popular new games of 2017, the game did not rake in as much money as Nintendo would have liked, especially when you consider how universally-recognized Mario is.