Nintendo's first free-to-play game based on Steel Diver, will include multiplayer battles

Nintendo's first free-to-play game is based on Steel Diver, Nintendo senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN.

Steel Diver was a single-player and multiplayer Nintendo 3DS launch title when the console was released in 2011. The side-scrolling game put players at the helm of a submarine, performing underwater missions. Miyamoto said that the upcoming free-to-play game will include battle-focused multiplayer.

"There is something we're doing with the Steel Diver idea that I think is going to open things up with that game," Miyamoto said.

"It's going to be very fun. We're exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint — it's going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting."

Miyamoto did not offer information on platforms or a release date, but that the company is "hoping to be able to show relatively soon."

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced last week during E3 that the game would launch this fiscal year, which ends in March 2014.