Nintendo said on Thursday it would team with U.S. film studio Illumination Entertainment to produce an animation film using its Super Mario Bros characters.

The film would be distributed by Universal Pictures, President Tatsumi Kimishima said at a meeting with analysts on son Thursday. The launch date has not been decided.

Nintendo is trying to diversify revenue sources as the firm's earnings are heavily reliant on the gaming console business.

As part of these efforts, Nintendo has also announced an app called Mario Kart Tour is set to be released in the next financial year, meaning anywhere between April 2018 and March 2019.

The company originally planned to have released five smartphone games by 2017, but only Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and the Miitomo social app have made it out so far. The latter app is already part of history.

Nintendo has also revealed that its upcoming subscription service for the Switch is coming in September. The online service is expected to be Nintendo's version of the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, offering online multiplayer for a fee. The service will cost $3.99 a month, or $19.99 per year.

Besides online play, subscribers will also get access to classic games from the company's back catalogue, which will be updated with new features like leaderboards and multiplayer.