Nintendo: joint venture company with DeNA (Nintendo Systems) and Nintendo of Europe re-organisation
Alongside their latest financials, Nintendo made a couple of announcements regarding a new company (Nintendo Systems Co. LTD) and a re-organisation in Europe.
First, they announced the creation of Nintendo Systems Co. LTD, a joint-venture with DeNA. With this company, Nintendo and DeNA are advancing their partnership (which started back in 2015) to the next level, putting an even stronger focus on Nintendo Accounts:
As part of this effort, Nintendo entered a business and capital alliance with DeNA in 2015 and has collaborated to develop and operate the new core system centered around Nintendo Account since then. Based on the expertise accumulated over the seven plus years and the experience of co-developing multiple services based on Nintendo Account, Nintendo and DeNA will advance their partnership and establish a joint venture company. With the objective to strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo’s business, the joint venture company will research and develop, as well as create value-added services to further reinforce Nintendo’s relationship with consumers.
Nintendo Systems Co. LTD will primarily focus on Nintendo Account, that Nintendo have been using to expand their relationships with users even outside Nintendo consoles (they’re used for in their mobile games, but also at real-life places like the Nintendo Stores in Japan or the Nintendo World theme park).
Therefore, it’s pretty safe to expect Nintendo to put even more focus on Nintendo Accounts and related services in the future, though dedicated consoles will still be the core of their business. For example, it definitely would not be far-fetched for Nintendo to have something involved Nintendo Accounts for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Nintendo Systems Co. LTD will be founded on April 3rd 2023 with capital of 5 billion yen (with Nintendo contributing 80%, and DeNA 20%). Its Representative Director and President will be Tetsuya Sasaki, and few officers and employees of Nintendo will concurrently serve as directors of Nintendo Systems.
In Europe, Nintendo have announced the reorganisation of some of their subsidiaries in the future. To be precise, three companies will be absorbed into Nintendo of Europe, but will keep on operating as usual (the only difference being that they will be part of Nintendo of Europe instead of separate companies).
The goal of that move is to improve business efficiency and accelerate decision-making by consolidating functions into one company (Nintendo of Europe).
The three European subsidiaries impacted by this change are:
- Nintendo France (to be absorbed in July 2023)
- Nintendo Benelux (to be absorbed in July 2023)
- Nintendo Iberica (Spain / Portugual) (to be absorbed in August 2024)
Following those mergers, Nintendo of Europe will be the only surviving company, and will see its trade name change to Nintendo of Europe AG in January 2024, and to Nintendo of Europe SE in August 2024. Nintendo France, Benelux, and Iberica will then become branches of Nintendo of Europe; their business will continue as usual, but decisions will be taken at the Nintendo of Europe level.
Before the merger, Nintendo France and Nintendo Benelux answered directly to Nintendo in Japan, with Nintendo Iberica answering to Nintendo of Europe who then answered to Nintendo in Japan. After this merger, Nintendo of Europe will be the sole company left, answering directly to Nintendo in Japan.
This changes is not expected to have any direct impact on users in France, Benelux, Spain, and Portugual.
Source: Nintendo PR (08/11/2022) / Nintendo PR (08/11/2022)