A few months ago, Nintendo stated that they would take advantage of smart devices to spread awareness of their games. At the same time, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that a small team was being set up at the company to work on smartphone apps—and perhaps even games—for this purpose.
During a financial results briefing today, Iwata revealed the first of these efforts—a web service called “Mario Kart TV” (temporary name) that will be accessible via PCs and smartphones, and will begin operation alongside the game’s release.
“Mario Kart TV” is the name of a feature in Mario Kart 8 that allows players to capture and share highlight videos of their races over the Internet, including via YouTube uploads. These videos will be viewable on the Wii U, but the Mario Kart TV service for PCs and browsers will also allow you to view them on those devices.
The image above is the layout of Mario Kart TV on smartphones. The web service will allow one to “easily watch Nintendo’s official videos, view rankings, watch videos that their friends have shared and videos of tournaments in which they have participated.”
Iwata said the goal of the service is to maintain contact with players even when they aren’t in front of their videogame consoles.
