Shortly after announcing its partnership with Nintendo to develop mobile games, an executive from DeNA said the two companies are looking to overtake "Candy Crush Saga" in terms of its users.
The chief executive of DeNA, Shintaro Asako, is confident that the existing properties of Nintendo have the capacity to attract millions smartphone gamers, according to Game Spot.
The "Candy Crush Saga," from the development studio King, first debuted as a Facebook game in April of 2012. In the same year, it was released as a mobile game for iOS and Android devices in 2012.
By 2014, the game expanded its user base by arriving for the Windows phone. At its peak, "Candy Crush Saga" was able to draw in around 93 million daily users.
Asako believes Nintendo and DeNA can go beyond this figure through the two companies' mobile games. In fact, the executive is targeting to reach 100 million active users.
"I've wanted to create something globally successful, not only for kids, but for mid-aged people and beyond," Asako told Venture Beat. "The game should attract a huge range of people."
"We wanted to get a huge audience like 'Candy Crush' - like 100 million users," he added. "We wanted to create something with that kind of DAU [daily active user] base."
In order to achieve this goal, Asako noted that the key is not about overwhelming smartphone users with numerous games or simply porting console-based titles to mobile devices.
Instead, the executive wants to develop one game that's specifically tailored for smartphone users. To keep them playing daily, the game will include an online social interaction feature.
Nintendo and DeNA established a business partnership this week with the goal of developing smartphone games featuring Nintendo characters, IGN reported.
As part of the deal, Nintendo will develop the mobile games while DeNA will oversee the online service operations for the upcoming mobile titles. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata noted that delivering Nintendo-based smartphone games can help in boosting the popularity of the company's consoles.
