Nintendo is not developing any sort of peripheral device for smartphones, but the company is open to the possibility.
During the company’s 76th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, the Director and General Manager of Entertainment Planning and Development Division, Shinya Takahashi, commented on the subject.
“Physical controllers for smart device applications are available in the market and it is possible that we may also develop something new by ourselves,” Takahashi said. However, he explains that Nintendo’s approach would most likely be to create games in which a controller would not be necessary.
“On the other hand, I believe Nintendo’s way of thinking is to look at whether action games are really not impossible (without a physical controller for smart device applications) to create and how we can make it happen to create such a game,” he continued. “I think we will make applications, and not just action games, in consideration of what best embodies ‘Nintendo-like’ applications, including applications for everyone from children to seniors.”
Nintendo’s first mobile application, Miitomo, launched in March and has already been downloaded over 10 million times. Earlier this year, the company revealed that a Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing game are in development for mobile devices. Release dates for these titles have yet to be revealed.