New Nintendo President Wants to Grow Company's Mobile Games Into a 100 Billion Yen Business

Nintendo has named a new president. While we'll have to wait and see how the new chief will guide Nintendo in the coming years, we at least know one area of focus for Shuntaro Furukawa: mobile games.

In a statement to Nikkei, Furukawa sees Pokemon Go as a lesson on building the company's smartphone game operations into a 100 billion yen (~$910 million) business. "From what I can see, smartphone games are the ones I want to expand the most," said Furukawa.

Furukawa was named the new Nintendo president last week and will be taking over the company fully in June. We broke down a couple key facts about the new Nintendo chief, but we've yet to see what his plans are exactly for Nintendo. However, it's clear that mobile might be one of his big priorities.

It makes sense given how much success Nintendo has had in the mobile space. While the Switch has proven to be a huge success, and a reminder of why Nintendo remains in the hardware space, mobile games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem: Heroes have also proven to be wildly popular for Nintendo.

"The idea that something will emerge that transforms into something big in the same manner as game consoles, is the defining motive of the Nintendo business," said Furukawa. This is something former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima echoed to Nikkei when he cited Pokemon Go as a "huge realization," for Nintendo about the future of the business.

For now, Furukawa says there are no Pokemon Go-scale projects in development. But a new partnership with Cygames on an original mobile IP demonstrates Nintendo's commitment to that space.

Another area of growth for Furukawa is Switch expansions into different markets like the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The next Nintendo mobile game announced is one based on Mario Kart called Mario Kart Tour. The title is currently scheduled for release in the next fiscal year.