Nintendo games will soon be made for mobile devices.

Overnight the company announced a new deal with Japanese mobile and e-commerce giant DeNA that will see all of its intellectual property made available for the mobile treatment.

However, Nintendo was quick to add that mobile gaming is intended to complement its console business rather than replace it.

DeNA publishes the iOS and Android versions of Peter Molyneux's Godus, iOS FPS The Drowning from Battlefield producer Ben Cousins, and Android versions of Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, Pocket Frogs, and others.

Nintendo said DeNA was an ideal partner as the companies have a similar culture.

The deal sees each company buying ¥22 billion (NZ$247m) of each other's shares, which amounts to about 10 percent of DeNA's stock, and 1.24 per cent of Nintendo's.

With that news, Nintendo’s share price shot up 23 percent.

There will be no ports of existing Nintendo games, but all of the company’s iconic characters will be available for future releases.

Nintendo has previously resisted the suggestion that its games should be available on mobile, although this deal has been five years in the making.

"Many content providers who are succeeding on smart devices are depending on single hit titles," said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.

"One of my goals here is, now that we are challenging ourselves with this endeavor by making use of Nintendo IP, to produce multiple hit titles at an early stage after we start releasing our software on smart devices."

As part of the new strategy, Nintendo and DeNA will launch an online membership service that will span Nintendo consoles, PC, smartphones, and tablets. It will launch in spring.

"Nintendo's decision to partner with DeNA is a recognition of the importance of the games app audience to the future of its business," IHS analyst Piers Harding-Rolls told Games Industry.

"Not only is there significant revenue to be made directly from smartphone and tablet consumers for Nintendo, app ecosystems are also very important in reaching new customers to make them aware of the Nintendo brand and to drive a new and broader audience to its dedicated console business."