Iwata:

I think both sides should answer this question. As I mentioned earlier, we have been saying that each company’s role will change depending on the game titles. In general, Nintendo offers its IP, and things like developing applications for smart devices and the designing or planning for those would be Nintendo’s main roles in many cases.

On the other hand, DeNA has sophisticated skills in developing back-end servers, analyzing consumer behavior or executing their daily operations extremely swiftly. So my understanding is that each side’s share would be almost equal, excluding portions related to our IP. However, I believe it is fair to allocate the return based on the investment made by each side while each side clearly shares information about the resources used for each title. So, what I mean is returns will be based on the effort each side makes, not based on the company size.

Moriyasu:

As Mr. Iwata said, regarding our game business – that is, game development and operation for smart devices – will depend on what role each party will play. Basically, we will do what each company is good at, which I mentioned earlier, and we will be sharing revenue accordingly. And from DeNA’s point of view, our focus is how much gross revenue one game can generate. As Mr. Iwata mentioned earlier, if we can create multiple hits, they should be able to generate a big positive impact on both parties’ revenues.

Iwata:

It would actually be far more constructive to discuss how we can increase our number of consumers than to discuss how we should split revenue between us. As a tremendous number of people own smart devices, our primary mission is to reach as many of them as possible. My answer might not be sufficient for analysts, but the first priority on our minds is how to increase our number of consumers.

Iwata:

Among all of the other things, it was DeNA’s passion. They had that strong desire to collaborate with Nintendo. Many companies have kindly knocked on our door, but I sense that they did so even though they doubted that Nintendo would ever consider their proposal at all. However, DeNA repeatedly approached us with determination.

One more thing I might add here is that whether a certain prospective partner is good at a field where Nintendo too has certain expertise is not very important. What is more important to us is that they have solid expertise and know-how in an area where Nintendo is not so strong. And in regard to the particular fields, Mr. Moriyasu even went as far as saying that they did not mind if DeNA remained completely in the background. Companies in general want their names to be exposed when they have a track record in a certain field, but doing so in collaborative works with other companies may end up creating a situation where consumers wonder whose service they are supposed to consider using. In the case of DeNA, because Mr. Moriyasu made such a statement early on, we were able to increase the number of the strategic options we might consider to jointly take.

If Nintendo were only planning to develop and operate smart device applications with another company, there might have been some other candidates to partner with. But as for another objective of this alliance, namely, the joint development of Nintendo’s new membership service, DeNA was more than willing to collaborate with us even though dedicated video game platforms, one of the platforms to be included in the membership service, was not a platform on which DeNA has been doing business. Furthermore, DeNA was that serious about and highly appreciative of the prospect of collaborating with us that they committed themselves to assigning their top employees to this project. This is what I can say as to our reasons.

Mr. Moriyasu, why do you think Nintendo’s door opened?

Moriyasu:

That question almost sounded like we have no track record! I don’t know about other companies but we were confident that we can be a good contributor in our area of strength and we can build a win-win relationship. I think this partnership is natural and makes a lot of sense.

Moriyasu:

Yes, from DeNA’s point of view, Nintendo will own 10 percent of our shares, which will make them the number-two shareholder. So, of course, they are going to have a large influence on us. At the same time, this alliance is more than a simple financial relationship and it is more of a strategic partnership. We want to leverage our new alliance and explore additional opportunities to raise the corporate value of both companies. So, again, from DeNA’s point of view, we believe Nintendo will be a shareholder that will add positive value to DeNA. Although smart device games will continue to be our core business, we have our strengths and weaknesses compared with other companies. By forming this partnership, we believe that we will be able to obtain know-how as well as better practices for creativity. I wouldn’t say that we want to steal ideas from Nintendo but I think we can learn a lot from them so that we can create great games on our own as well.

Iwata:

Let’s learn from each other. I think "stealing" ideas sounds a bit strange.

Moriyasu:

While Nintendo will be a 10 percent shareholder, I believe they will also be an important partner, and we can both add value to each other’s companies.