For the first time ever, Nintendo Co.'s games will be playable on gaming hardware that wasn't made by the Kyoto-based company.

In a new initiative limited to China, Nintendo has begun distributing classic Wii and Gamecube titles through Nvidia Corp.'s gaming tablet Shield, the game-maker said in a statement. The device went on sale Tuesday in mainland China with three classic Nintendo games, including "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess," "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" and "Punch-Out!!," which were released globally roughly a decade ago.

It's a significant shift for Nintendo, which has kept its homegrown games exclusively for its own home and handheld consoles since the early 1980s. The maker of Wii, DS and Switch machines only reluctantly began releasing mobile titles for third-party smartphones last year. With China surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest gaming market, pressure has been building on Nintendo to bring its titles to the mainland.