Nintendo Acquires Video Software Company Mobiclip

In the increasingly common world of startup acquisitions, Nintendo is usually not a major player. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc are usually the ones making news for snatching up a specialized technology company to better integrate its services into future software and products. This is because Nintendo is usually not on the front lines of emerging tech, but this time it's a different story as the Mario company has just acquired a company called Mobiclip.

Prior to the acquisition, the company focused on video and compression technologies that allowed video, including live content, to be streamed to mobile devices. Nintendo had an existing partnership with Mobiclip to help with video rendering and playback in some of its handheld games on the GBA and Nintendo DS.

After the acquisition, Mobiclip posted a job opening for a "console software engineer" on its website. The company will reportedly bring its video technologies to the Wii U, Nintendo's impending console successor to the Wii. Mobiclip's involvement will likely be related to the controller, which acts more like a tablet than a traditional series of buttons and joysticks. However, Mobiclip's past experience has dealt with many players in the smartphone world, so it also brings up the potential of Nintendo breaking into that market. Perhaps.

[via Gamautra]