Last night in Tokyo, Nintendo announced that they will form a software joint venture with Dentsu Inc, Japan's leading advertising company to develop games for Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. The new company will be called "ND Cube Co Ltd," and will be formed on March 1st, 2000. The company will be owned 78% by Nintendo, and 13.3% by Dentsu.

ND Cube Co. has an annual software sales target of 500,000 units in the year to March 2001. In the first year they are expecting profits of 200 million yen. In the second year of operation, that is expected to rise to 2.5 million software units sold, and one billion yen in profits, Nintendo spokesperson said.

Last October Nintendo announced a similar partnership with Mobile 21, in which Konami is also involved. Nintendo seems to be expanding their development teams and relying on second-parties more than ever.