Gotta catch that mobile money.
The free-to-play puzzle game Pokémon Shuffle, which originally came out for the Nintendo 3DS this February, is getting a mobile release on iOS and Android later this year, and Nintendo doesn’t seem to be a part of it. This brings the game to a mobile market that could be worth $30 billion this year, according to research firm Newzoo.
This doesn’t appear to be a part of Nintendo’s deal with Japanese mobile publisher DeNA. The Pokémon Company is affiliated with, but not completely run by, Nintendo, so it often makes its own deals that seem contrary to usual Nintendo policy. Pokémon TGC Online is a free-to-play digital version of the franchise’s card game on PC and iPad, so this isn’t even the first Pokémon game for mobile.
Players have downloaded the 3DS version of Pokémon Shuffle more than 4.5 million times, according to The Pokémon Company.