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Discussion What next for Nintendo when it comes to mobile games?

Danny

Danny

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Nintendo seems to have mostly abandoned the mobile market, not making new mobile games any longer and mostly updating existing ones like Fire Emblem heroes and Super Mario Run.

Will the advent of Switch 2 see any change of their mobile strategy? Will Nintendo EPD expansion lead to Nintendo making a bigger, dedicated EPD mobile development group for instance? Or will they put all resources from the expansion into Switch 2?
 
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They went into mobile market only because Iwata was forced into it and the Switch was overall very great success so there was no need to spend EPD resouces on mobile games anymore, like MK Team which was assentially stuck on Tour for god knows how long.
 
Wockio said:
It was part of a greater push to broaden the scope of Nintendo IP and while it's definitely looking like it's kind of over, Pikmin Bloom was only a year ago. This lie that it was only done to appease shareholders needs to die.
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However, notably Pikmin Bloom is a Niantic game licensing a Nintendo IP, rather than a Nintendo mobile game.
 
Wockio said:
It was part of a greater push to broaden the scope of Nintendo IP and while it's definitely looking like it's kind of over, Pikmin Bloom was only a year ago. This lie that it was only done to appease shareholders needs to die.
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Pikmin Bloom was released almost 3 years ago at this point. While we don't have full credits it was primarily developed by Niantic using Nintendo IP.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
However, notably Pikmin Bloom is a Niantic game licensing a Nintendo IP, rather than a Nintendo mobile game.
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LukasManak22 said:
Pikmin Bloom was released almost 3 years ago at this point. While we don't have full credits it was primarily developed by Niantic using Nintendo IP.
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You are both right. I thought Pikmin Bloom came out during that one Direct when Miyamoto announced Pikmin 4 lol.

Either way Mario Kart Tour definitely started development post Switch launch so I think that shows mobile was something Nintendo had a genuine interest in experimenting with.
 
They probably thought it was fun for a while being able to develop software on competing hardware but probably decided to stop after seeing everyone make fun of Xbox for doing it.
 
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Nintendo obviously took this decision under duress. Just reread all the shareholder questions on the subject, and all the crappy analyses by incompetent consultants. It gave us the immense joy of having games based on lootboxes, some of which have been banned in countries like Belgium because of this harmful business model.

And at the first sign of trouble, this kind of pressure will be brought again. Nintendo really should put Mario on PC against all logic. They should take an interest in NFT. They should put advertising billboards in Mario Kart. They should charge for items in Zelda through micro-transactions.
 
Warlord said:
Licensing and collaborations. Whenever Genshin comes out on Switch 2 we could get a Link or Zelda special character.
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I wonder if Nintendo is scared about stuff like Genshin coming out on Switch 2. Experience shows that such GAAS games just make people stop buying new games and instead spend all their time playing GAAS for all eternity. Nintendo traditional business model is all about getting players to continue buying new games Nintendo makes, not play forever games.
 
Given that FE Heroes has made them more cash in 5 years than the rest of the series combined in 40, I suspect they’ll return to mobile for brand extensions in future.
 
Pokémon Go, Masters and FE Heroes will stay.

Probably they’ll try something new only with a pitch that they feel can truly succeed.

So, where’s my Nintendogs?
 
Danny said:
I wonder if Nintendo is scared about stuff like Genshin coming out on Switch 2. Experience shows that such GAAS games just make people stop buying new games and instead spend all their time playing GAAS for all eternity. Nintendo traditional business model is all about getting players to continue buying new games Nintendo makes, not play forever games.
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Doubt it. If anything, they would want all current Hoyo games to come to Switch 2 considering how much money sony makes on them.
And I doubt they would damage Nintendo games sales. The IPs are just too strong for that to happen.
 
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The core benefit of mobile is IP expansion. If I were them, I'd do two things next:

- Splatoon Gacha Game: Will do very well in Japan where the Splatoon IP is already big, and could help better expand the IP in the West.

- Super Mario Run Sequel: The Mario IP is currently at its most ripe for success. Run has barely been relevant since it was released in 2016, and I think they'd have better luck now that they understand the mobile market better. Make it fully free to play with no $10 entry fee. Use the Mario Wonder art style, and have a wide variety of power-ups and characters from across the franchise so it can serve as an entry point for new fans. This would also be a great boost for the 40th-anniversary marketing next year.
 
Like others, I am still expecting a mobile Nintendogs with a significant companion experience on the successor to Nintendo Switch. A free-to-play mobile Nintendogs could expand the reach Nintendo has regained even further, and the circulation of ridiculously high fidelity dog graphics on social media could make a new group interested in the next system and, ideally, other games.

I think the traditional Nintendogs experience would be complete on mobile with the "dog park" on the successor system having mini games and other interactivity. Imagine friends getting together and being able to bring their dogs to the dog park on one successor system, allowing the dogs to interact and compete.
 
Considering Switch might overtake PS2 in terms of sales, probably nothing until the next Wii U. They don't feel the need to remind people what a Mario is anymore, they know a normal video game will be popular. Besides, were any of their mobile games even successful? I remember enjoying Dr Mario and that got shut down. Mario Run certainly wasn't what people wanted, even if I liked it fine. Mario Kart, maybe, if it got its fair share of big donors for Diddy Kong or whatever
 
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Nintendogs is always brought up as a obvious choice for a series to bring to mobile, but the whole point of their mobile titles are for them to essentially be stripped down versions of the mainline games that can potentially upsell people on wanting to experience what a full-fledged Fire Emblem or Pikmin title is like. I don't know how you'd strip down Nintendogs: it feels like you either get a virtual pet watching simulator, which would probably be less fun than just looking up funny animal videos on YouTube, or you just straight up make a normal entry of the series for mobile with F2P elements, meaning there is no getting people into the part of the Nintendo ecosystem that actually makes Nintendo the bulk of its most money.
 
OctoSplattack said:
Nintendogs is always brought up as a obvious choice for a series to bring to mobile, but the whole point of their mobile titles are for them to essentially be stripped down versions of the mainline games that can potentially upsell people on wanting to experience what a full-fledged Fire Emblem or Pikmin title is like. I don't know how you'd strip down Nintendogs: it feels like you either get a virtual pet watching simulator, which would probably be less fun than just looking up funny animal videos on YouTube, or you just straight up make a normal entry of the series for mobile with F2P elements, meaning there is no getting people into the part of the Nintendo ecosystem that actually makes Nintendo the bulk of its most money.
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You may as well move it over to mobile since I very much doubt they’ll be an entry on Nintendo hardware going into the future.
I’ve said my piece on this before. I think they can be doing more & better than their current strategy but it’ll probably by small licensing efforts like Bloom going forward.
 
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I'm expecting that FEH will continue on and end the askr story at book 10 and then follow this up with a new story utilizing its own universe, characters and it's own series of books.
I would also expect there will be another Nintendo mobile game using GPS features coming in the next 1 or 2 years, possibly being based on one of the first party developed and owned titles.
If Golden Sun 4 for switch 1/2 happens in next year, I would hope that Camelot creates a small mobile team to work on a mobile gacha spin-off of Golden Sun to ensure to keep the golden sun series alive while they're working on the next Mario Tennis/Golf titles before they work another Golden Sun game for the Switch 2.
 
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Maybe something with Splatoon, that’s probably the most obvious route to go in between the series’ own massive popularity in Japan and it not really breaking through in the mainstream (yet) in the West.

If they were to do another anime gacha game, I think Xenoblade would be a good fit.
 
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I think they give give Mario another crack.
Their best bet may be to create a new IP and 'follow' gatcha trends.
 
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They've done Mario, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing, so Zelda and Splatoon would be the most natural next steps. I doubt that they'd want to do future mobile games in-house, but DeNA could always cook something up.
 
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It made sense to have that outlet to fall back on when their console business was uncertain but once the Switch took off there was no reason to ever touch mobile
 
rojoredrouge said:
I always thought Nintendogs would be a good fit for mobile gaming
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Triistan said:
Pokémon Go, Masters and FE Heroes will stay.

Probably they’ll try something new only with a pitch that they feel can truly succeed.

So, where’s my Nintendogs?
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Nintendos mobile stuff has been about broadening the appeal of their franchises and boosting their console games. Nintendogs for mobile only makes sense if it was still an active series being made for the Switch.

Since their hasn't been a console Nintendogs game in many years and seemingly won't be any time soon, there's no point in a mobile game.
 
dyle said:
They're never touching mobile again outside of Pokemon
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I feel this is rather short sighted of Nintendo. if they want auxiliary stuff to keep their IP in vogue, smaller games that don't impede on their main games would do a lot to help that.

for example, they have a Splatoon card game in Splatoon 3. breaking that out into a mobile game would do a lot for them
 
Chie said:
Nintendos mobile stuff has been about broadening the appeal of their franchises and boosting their console games. Nintendogs for mobile only makes sense if it was still an active series being made for the Switch.

Since their hasn't been a console Nintendogs game in many years and seemingly won't be any time soon, there's no point in a mobile game.
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Dr. Mario and Dragalia Lost have been dead for a long time now and they have not gotten a game for the Switch.
I think they should reuse the assets and release a low budget eShop game, but Nintendo didn't even do that.
 
ILikeFeet said:
I feel this is rather short sighted of Nintendo. if they want auxiliary stuff to keep their IP in vogue, smaller games that don't impede on their main games would do a lot to help that.

for example, they have a Splatoon card game in Splatoon 3. breaking that out into a mobile game would do a lot for them
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Tableturf as is already captures 90% of its potential depth and complexity, the only thing it's missing is a splat zones analogue mode. There is no way to expand it enough to be a standalone product.

What Nintendo learned from its mobile experiments was that the time and money spent making them would have been better spent making their core titles. On mobile they have to give up 30% of their revenue to sell products to what is almost entirely the same set of customers they would sell to on their consoles. Hence why they brought most of Tour's content to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

If they want to reach a wider audience, they realized that it makes more sense to look outside of games to other products (movies, theme parks, Lego and other merchandise, etc.). Mobile games just end up competing with their console games.
 
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majimazio said:
Dr. Mario and Dragalia Lost have been dead for a long time now and they have not gotten a game for the Switch.
I think they should reuse the assets and release a low budget eShop game, but Nintendo didn't even do that.
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Dragalia Lost was a collab with cygames and an original ip.

There was a Dr. Mario game on the 3ds and Dr. Luigi on the wii u. There hasn't been a game on Switch but the series was more recent when the mobile game for it came out.
 
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dyle said:
Tableturf as is already captures 90% of its potential depth and complexity, the only thing it's missing is a splat zones analogue mode. There is no way to expand it enough to be a standalone product.

What Nintendo learned from its mobile experiments was that the time and money spent making them would have been better spent making their core titles. On mobile they have to give up 30% of their revenue to sell products to what is almost entirely the same set of customers they would sell to on their consoles. Hence why they brought most of Tour's content to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

If they want to reach a wider audience, they realized that it makes more sense to look outside of games to other products (movies, theme parks, Lego and other merchandise, etc.). Mobile games just end up competing with their console games.
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I feel other publishers should do the same thing. I mean Square Enix keeps making mobile games that get delisted immediately. Nintendo on the other hand learned the lesson that only waifu gacha games could bring in cash when it came to mobile games while most of everything else was dead on arrival.
 
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I think they're basically done. Investors do not really bother asking about the mobile market anymore, and Fire Emblem Heroes' profits are all they would need to keep any potential askers happy.
 
JazzyFuture said:
I think they're basically done. Investors do not really bother asking about the mobile market anymore, and Fire Emblem Heroes' profits are all they would need to keep any potential askers happy.
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I think the same, Nintendo themselves have also almost stopped talking about mobile games and mobile strategy, while other publishers always have mobile as a big focus in their financial reports. I think Nintendo basically shifted from mobile games being their way to diversify their business to movies, stores and theme parks instead.
 
tbh a mobile nintendogs could bring forth a new-era virtual world pet-craze à-la Webkinz, Shooting Stars, Beanie Babies 2.0, Neopets, etc.
 
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The mobile initiative is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The existing titles will be kept on life support for a while and maybe they launch one or two more if they get a really good pitch and the pitching studio is willing to do all the work, but they very transparently gave up on.the whole venture once it was clear the Switch made it unnecessary.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The mobile initiative is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The existing titles will be kept on life support for a while and maybe they launch one or two more if they get a really good pitch and the pitching studio is willing to do all the work, but they very transparently gave up on.the whole venture once it was clear the Switch made it unnecessary.
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I certainly get that the lackluster performance of titles like Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing I Forgot What It Was Called have scared off Nintendo from being as tenacious as they once were with the mobile release schedule, but I think they understand they can find viability in more successful titles like Fire Emblem Heroes. If this initative was dead and buried, they wouldn't be making 2 events for recent mario Switch titles back-to-back in Super Mario Run, which was considered a resounding disappointment at release. It's not dead- it's simply getting rebooted after they went at it and failed, now they'll learn from the experience.


A failure that wasn't even financial. too. It was merely not as profitable as it should have been. Plenty of reason to stay on that track and adjust the development of those games.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The mobile initiative is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The existing titles will be kept on life support for a while and maybe they launch one or two more if they get a really good pitch and the pitching studio is willing to do all the work, but they very transparently gave up on.the whole venture once it was clear the Switch made it unnecessary.
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The other games sure, but FEH is still genuinely enough of a success that Nintendo and IS are still as consistent with supporting it as they've ever been, and probably will be for several more years at least.

What they do after FEH runs its course is a different story.
 
Hailinel said:
The other games sure, but FEH is still genuinely enough of a success that Nintendo and IS are still as consistent with supporting it as they've ever been, and probably will be for several more years at least.

What they do after FEH runs its course is a different story.
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Warioware Mobile see the vision
 
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junglehead said:
I certainly get that the lackluster performance of titles like Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing I Forgot What It Was Called have scared off Nintendo from being as tenacious as they once were with the mobile release schedule, but I think they understand they can find viability in more successful titles like Fire Emblem Heroes. If this initative was dead and buried, they wouldn't be making 2 events for recent mario Switch titles back-to-back in Super Mario Run, which was considered a resounding disappointment at release. It's not dead- it's simply getting rebooted after they went at it and failed, now they'll learn from the experience.


A failure that wasn't even financial. too. It was merely not as profitable as it should have been. Plenty of reason to stay on that track and adjust the development of those games.
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If the initiative wasn't dead, they wouldn't have stopped releasing new games after 2019, with the only exception being the seemingly almost entirely Niantic driven Pikmin Bloom. FEH will be allowed to run its course, and Mario Run has been (very slightly) reworked into a more effective advertising vehicle for Mario games, but fundamentally the initiative seems to be more in a controlled wind down then anything else.
 
Tbh? I’d prefer they release a “eShop App” on smartphones where it’s easier to buy games or wishlists or maneuver the eShop without having to resort to websites or the console itself.

Can get notifications like “hey it’s on sale!” Or “hey it’s available!” Or something
 
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