You can expect more than Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, and one other Nintendo game to hit your iPhone in 2017.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said the company will launch more than three games for tablets and smartphones each year, according to an interview with Japanese newspaper Sankei (as noted analyst Kantan Games consultant Dr. Serkan Toto has translated it). This counters a Kimishima quote from December 22, when he told Japanese news site Kyoto Shimbun that the company will launch only two or three mobile games every year. The company had previously promised to release mobile versions of its social-life simulator Animal Crossing and strategy battler Fire Emblem for mobile devices, but with Super Mario Run performing so well, Nintendo is going to expand its publishing strategy in the $36.6 billion smartphone-gaming market.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":2137897,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,games,mobile,","session":"D"}']In the Sankei interview, Kimishima also attempted to alleviate some concerns among investors about Nintendo’s approach to mobile. While Super Mario Run is likely a hugely profitable game, investors aren’t happy that it has only one $10 purchase available to consumers. Instead, Nintendo’s stakeholders want the publisher to embrace free-to-play with microtransactions, which enables players to spend thousands of dollars on a game. Kimishima explained to the newspaper that future business models will depend on what kind of game the company is making.
But the Nintendo president did say that he wants to establish its mobile business as strong source of revenue distinct from its console and software business. That is slightly different from in the past, when Kimishima said that one of the primary goals of making Nintendo games for mobile devices was to get players interested in 3DS, Wii U, and — soon — Switch games.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More