Wall Street Journal:

Nintendo Co. dropped its long-standing aversion to mobile gaming, saying Tuesday that it would begin developing games for smartphones based on characters such as Mario the plumber.

The surprising about-face by Nintendo includes a partnership with DeNA Co., a Japanese mobile game provider, under which the companies will exchange ownership stakes and jointly develop “gaming applications” for smartphones and other devices.

And:

Nintendo said it was buying a 10% stake in DeNA for ¥22 billion ($182 million), while DeNA is acquiring a 1.24% stake in Nintendo for the same amount.

And:

The companies said they would develop a new “multi-device membership service for the global market,” to be introduced this autumn. It will be compatible with a variety of devices, including PC’s, smartphones and tablets, as well as Nintendo’s game consoles.

This is pure speculation, but this last bit makes me feel like Nintendo is considering a multi-user service, like Microsoft’s Xbox Live or Sony’s Playstation Network and, perhaps, a massively multiplayer Zelda universe. Conjecture, or merely wishful thinking?