Nintendo's Cross-Platform Membership Service Should Debut This Fall

As part of mobile game giant DeNA's latest earnings report on Tuesday, the Japanese company--which recently signed a deal with Nintendo for smartphone games--spoke about its plans for the "integrated membership service" first referenced back in March. Specifically, DeNA revealed that it plans to roll out this new service sometime this fall, presumably in conjunction with the first of its Nintendo smartphone games.

According to DeNA, this membership service will connect smart devices and Nintendo's own systems, including Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PC, and the NX whenever it is released.

This slide above also mentions an "evolved version" of Nintendo's Club Nintendo program, which is currently winding down. The replacement program is expected to launch by the end of the year.

Neither Nintendo nor DeNA have shared specifics about the new membership service, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata offered a high-level description during an earnings presentation recently.

"Our members will be able to visit Nintendo's website and log in with one ID, and they will receive various services including the ones based on their past purchases and gameplay records as well as services that will be an improved version of the current loyalty program," he said at the time.

According to Iwata, Nintendo plans to "offer advantages to consumers who use one ID across multiple devices." He went on to say that Nintendo's overall ambition for the new service is to "make playing Nintendo games with game pals more fun regardless of which platform they are accessing."