GungHo Online Entertainment today announced Puzzle & Dragons Gold. It’s launching on Nintendo Switch later this year.
This is a new entry in the company’s puzzler franchise. Puzzle & Dragons is a big hit on mobile, especially in Japan. The free-to-play game generated over $7 billion in revenue and has surpassed 80 million downloads since its launch in 2012.
Puzzle & Dragons Gold is coming to North America as an attempt by GungHo to increase the franchise’s popularity outside of Japan. This is something it has struggled with in the past. It will focus on player-vs.-player action. While that shift to multiplayer is new for Puzzle & Dragons, GungHo is still building Gold on the same puzzle mechanics and foundations as the original.
GungHo and Puzzle & Dragons have a relationship with Nintendo, with a Mario-focused spinoff of the series, Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition. That debuted in 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS.