Nintendo announced on Wednesday that it plans to launch two or three mobile games every year, a day after the Japanese company made a one-third cut to its full-year operating profit outlook (via Reuters).
Yesterday, Nintendo was able to report its first quarterly profit in a year as its mobile games division started to generate revenue, but it wasn't enough for disappointed investors who had hoped profit from games like Super Mario Run would have grown fast enough to offset falling earnings in Nintendo's console business. Shares of Nintendo Co Ltd dropped more than 4 percent on Wednesday following the news.
Launched in December, Super Mario Run helped third-quarter revenue from mobile gaming and related merchandise reach around 7 billion yen ($61.7 million). So far downloads have hit around 78 million, although Nintendo admitted less than 10 percent of users paid the one-off $9.99 fee to unlock all of the game's features. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said it would be taking steps to make the game last longer for people who had paid as well as those had yet to do so.
"We are taking a number of steps to ensure that Super Mario Run can be enjoyed for a long time, both by those who have already made the full purchase and by those who have downloaded the application but not yet made the purchase. We are also taking steps in-game to raise the ratio of purchases among consumers downloading the application for the first time."
Putting its plans into action, Nintendo yesterday rolled out an update to Super Mario Run that includes a collection of feature additions and bug fixes, along with a new "Easy Mode".
Nintendo's next title, the tactical role-playing game Fire Emblem Heroes, launches on iOS tomorrow, and is a radical departure from Super Mario Run, not least because it will be a free-to-pay title, favoring micro transactions and in-game currency over a one-off unlock payment. However, like Super Mario Run, Heroes will require players to have a persistent internet connection in order to play.
Nintendo's other planned mobile game is a currently untitled iOS version of Animal Crossing, which is expected to launch in the next fiscal year, so anytime between April 2017 and March 2018.
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Top Rated Comments
With the popularity of the Nintendo Classic Edition, there is obviously a market for retro gaming. If Nintendo would make an App of the tvOS that was like a virtual console from the Wii and Wii U, and sell games individually by IAP, I am sure people would purchase an ATV4 just for this.
Please give up on your Fisher-Price quality hardware and just focus on games. See how successful Pokemon and Mario are on iOS? There's your answer.
Sincerely,
Daws001
Paying $12.99 for healing orbs is so much better than a 1-time fee to unlock a full game. :rolleyes:
Actually no. Mario Run has 78 million downloads with less than 10% of players willing to pay for the full game. Pokémon Go was a success but IAP revenue would need to be split between 4 companies - Nintendo, game freak, niantic & Apple.
We'll have to see how Fire Emblem does with the freemium mechanic App Store players love...
I'm sure we'll just see more people whinging that they want Nintendo's full games for free with no IAP. :rolleyes: Just go buy their console and enjoy games the way they're meant to be enjoyed - with a proper controller and no IAP.