Nintendo reportedly helping developers bring smartphone games to Wii U

We've already seen a few mobile games on the Wii U. It makes sense that Nintendo would want to bring more to the platform.

Wii U sales have been rather slow these past few months, undoubtedly due to a lack of games. However, a new rumor suggests that Nintendo is working on a solution that may come as a surprise to some. The Japan Times is reporting that "company sources" have revealed Nintendo is working on tools that will make it very easy to convert smartphone titles to their latest console. There is no shortage of games for smartphones, and if they manage to tap into even a small fraction of that market, Wii U owners should have plenty of games to play.

What makes this rumor more credible than most is the fact that one company has already reported they have such software. During GDC 2013 in late March, a Stewart Christie of Tizen App Developers announced via Twitter that his company has software that can convert iOS code to Javascript and CSS, both of which are supported by the Wii U. Christie even invited iOS developers to stop by their booth for a demonstration, as you can see from the following Tweet.

@dscommunity we have free s/w to convert iOS to JavaScript and CSS, then you can deploy on Nintendo Wiiu, stop by booth#GDC2013
— Stewart Christie (@intel_stewart) March 27, 2013

Lending more credence to this story is the existence of the Wii U version of the game Kung Fu Rabbit, a title that was originally released on mobile platforms and was then brought to the eShop by Neko Entertainment. The console version boasts some major enhancements, such as a control scheme that uses actual buttons as opposed to virtual ones. Considering how well it turned out, it seems quite possible that Nintendo is interested in creating software to help other companies do the same with their popular titles as well. While there are plenty of mobile games that could also benefit from having physical buttons, there are scores more that could be brought to the system "as is," since many of them rely on tilt and touchscreen input, two major features the Wii U GamePad has. If this rumor turns out to be true, it should not come as much of a surprise. We'll keep you posted.

Source: Japan Times via Kotaku


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