Nintendo investors seem pumped about Tencent bringing its MOBA to Switch

Nintendo's stock price is riding high this week, and some analysts believe it's because investors are speculating the company will push further into China now that it has made a deal with Chinese megacorp Tencent to bring a version of Tencent's free-to-play mobile MOBA Honor of Kings to the Switch later this year.

However, devs should note that Nintendo has not announced any notable plans to enter China. What's more, the Switch version of Honor of Kings (called Arena of Valor in the West) will be hard to play in the region since the Switch currently isn't officially sold in China.

Nevertheless, Nintendo's stock price rose roughly 7 percent today to reach heights (according to industry analysts like Dr. Serkan Toto) it hasn't seen since 2008, when the Wii was in full swing. 

It's a good reminder that China is now the world's largest game market by a significant margin, though the lion's share of that market is dominated by mobile and PC games rather than console games.

Of course, Nintendo now has a mobile game business that's explicitly intended to get Mario and other company properties in front of audiences -- and markets -- that aren't playing console games.