Great news. Any monetization method besides 1-time purchase makes any game design garbage. Nintendo's philosophy of game design is so far removed from mobage bs it was obviously floundering.
Bloomberg (Takashi Mochizuki): Nintendo unlikely to further pursue major mobile efforts
- Thread starter Deleted member 2791
- Start date
It wasn't worth what they were asking. SMR just is a lacking game in so many ways and I was beyond dissapointed with it.
Good. They half-assed most of their mobile efforts and got bitten for it.
Also, Mario Run could have been successful had it been just a one-time $4.99 premium game. Most people even in 2016 were not going to pay $10 for an auto runner when there are much better auto runners out there for less.
Also, Mario Run could have been successful had it been just a one-time $4.99 premium game. Most people even in 2016 were not going to pay $10 for an auto runner when there are much better auto runners out there for less.
They have been leverageing Tencent, the premiere specialist in F2P (mobile and Web) with Arena of Honor Switch as well as the China rollout so hopefully that succeeds.
As for the rest of their mobile gaming effort - a pity since I think they have lots to offer in that regard particularly in what should be companion apps (Still a bit surprised there isn't more integration between ACNH and ACPocket Camp).
They could still leverage a lot of the newer mobile gaming efforts onto Switch since F2P is also ok to strong there.
You know you want it. You know you require such a game. Give into the gacha pit. Give into your deepest desires.
The problem is that almost any game worth playing would be better realized on Switch. Basically the only model that works is gacha hell and Nintendo is reluctant to push that (too) hard.
Dragalia Lost would have been exponentially better on 3DS for example.
But this would suck ass and exist only to suck money from fans. That gameplay isn't "Zelda" and slapping Zelda characters on that doesn't make it a Zelda game.
Last edited:
Totally fine with this at this point. Switch is still taking off and the staff working on mobile games have better use on first-party Switch projects.
It's not like they made zero money in mobile but clearly that's not where their strengths lie.
It's not like they made zero money in mobile but clearly that's not where their strengths lie.
I consider this good news, not because I have anything specifically against Nintendo making mobile games, but because it means the trend of the mobile market eating the console and especially portable market seems to have stalled or reversed (and of course, Nintendo pulling out of that market is also a push towards that reversal).
The Switch has single-handedly saved portable consoles, hasn't it.
The Switch has single-handedly saved portable consoles, hasn't it.
This is such a dumb decision by Nintendo if true, that i can't even process what they're thinking. I truly don't think they would be idiotic enough to just drop off the market and bank on a thing that can be a once in a while. Banking it's entire business in just one direction is utterly bizarre! I do however recognize that mobile offerings are rising in development budgets/costs and the market is becoming ever increasing tightly and even adverse to newcomers. Hopefully this is Nintendo just taking a breath and reasserting their options on the mobile to comeback with meaty offerings that truly leverage the platform strength instead of these lacklusters efforts of them. IP's like Xenoblade, Paper Mario, Kirby, Zelda, etc can be turned into great moneymakers on mobile. Truly enough, i do think these takes on Nintendo mobile stance to be false. It's just strange of how lips sealed Nintendo is regarding theirs console games while their mobile offerings seems to be a open playbook to analysts. Also the money related stance is just contrary of what Nintendo themselves do with games like FEH, Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing(While Dragalia Lost do seem to suffer from Nintendo meddling). I would like to observe the mobile offerings they'll unveil later this year/next year to see if this insight by Mochizuki is right or just badly told.
yo, for real.
i've loved handhelds from the OG fat gameboy and seeing the switch solidify that market as a huge portion of a huge industry makes me so happy. really a best case scenario for nintendo here, leaving the home console market and ensuring all of their devs focus on 1 handheld
and now this news? ensuring they remain focused on real, big titles and not gacha fire emblem spinoffs is a damn miracle
Who said Nintendo was ever afraid of mobile games? It was more the Wii U bombing + investor pressure + the constant claims that mobile would be taking over pushed them into trying their hand at it
Nintendogs or something like brain training would've gone a long way on mobile. Throw transactions in there for extra breeds or nintendo product toys for the animals. Even though I think MKT was gone, I'm glad they are choosing not to fail anymore lol.
Their approach was just pathetic.
Their approach was just pathetic.
Everything you stated demonstrates that they were worried that their major stake in the industry, mobile gaming, was at risk of being overtaken by traditional mobile games. Luckily, the Switch appears to have alleviated those concerns.
The initial plan was to use mobile game as a marketing tool for their console business but after the success they got with FEH Nintendo lost the focus turning all their games into cash grabs.
This could be good news, I prefer console games, I'd rather pay $60 (plus DLC) to get a complete game instead to pay $5 each month just for the opportunity to get something worth in the game.
Not gonna lie, some of their mobile games had brought nice gameplay ideas to their console installments like the DIY projects from Animal Crossing, raid battles into Pokemon Sw/Sh and I can see the Next Mario Kart as a GAAS with a Tour mechanic.
This could be good news, I prefer console games, I'd rather pay $60 (plus DLC) to get a complete game instead to pay $5 each month just for the opportunity to get something worth in the game.
Not gonna lie, some of their mobile games had brought nice gameplay ideas to their console installments like the DIY projects from Animal Crossing, raid battles into Pokemon Sw/Sh and I can see the Next Mario Kart as a GAAS with a Tour mechanic.
No, it shows that their investors/board members were worried. I don't think Nintendo leadership was
I'm surprised because it seemed to be a rather lucrative investment for them.
Not that I cared or paid a single cent into any of their apps though, but I played Fire Emblem a bit. :lol
Not that I cared or paid a single cent into any of their apps though, but I played Fire Emblem a bit. :lol
BOTW shares a LOT more with traditional Zelda gameplay than anything described. As much as people shit on BOTW for not having "traditional" dungeons with dungeon specific itesm, you're literally proposing a boss rush. For an ADVENTURE game. No puzzle solving. No exploration. Nothing about it resembles the core Zelda gameplay
I mean, I can tell you don't play gacha games or even looked at the examples of similar games I posted. If that's what you got out of my post, I'll just leave it as "ok" because this is a wasted venture.
Gacha is a mechanic in mobile games. It's not an excuse to have a game that resembles it's series in nothing, but name alone. And you don't even have enough faith in your idea to defend it
You are missing the point as much as this proposed mobile Zelda game would... and to be clear, that means entirely.
Pokemon has never peaked higher than GO. If a game was that massively successful while requiring an inordinate amount of commitment from the player, pure Nintendo franchises could see the same results, especially without the need for controller gimmicks.
They don't want to just put their existing games on mobile because they would rather be a hardware company. What's wrong with saying that? They really need to stop with the excuses that make them look out of touch and aren't actually accurate to begin with. Animal Crossing has been a mobile style game for years. The hardware gimmicks have never been core to its experience and are often poorly received to begin with.
Fire Emblem Heroes exists. It represents everything you claim Nintendo is trying to avoid.
AFAIK, there's no Nintendo employee actually programming on mobile. It's all developed by 3rd parties.
To move away from mobile because console is successful is not the right rationale; the mobile market has billions of players and Nintendo should participate in that.
I think it's one issue to figure out if they should have 1st party mobile development, but continued licensing of their IP to third party products is important so they stay in touch with the masses
To move away from mobile because console is successful is not the right rationale; the mobile market has billions of players and Nintendo should participate in that.
I think it's one issue to figure out if they should have 1st party mobile development, but continued licensing of their IP to third party products is important so they stay in touch with the masses
I would love to see them invest in a studio who specializes in co-op multiplayer FPS. It's such a missing genre on the switch. The best one yet is warface. But I would love to see someone else give it a try.
You have a story similar to Link to the Past. These kinds of games already exist on mobile, and in GaaS form. You can do everything you do in a traditional top-down Zelda on mobile. It's totally doable and has been done.
You have events with dungeons that are up for two weeks or so. These are similar to LttP dungeons, with a boss at the end. Then once cleared you can "farm" the bosses at higher difficulties for rewards, as you do in GaaS. These bosses can be from previous games, and the dungeons can be themed after the specific boss/game/whatever.
You have story expansions every couple months, with new dungeons and bosses. These expand the story of the game.
Your gacha consists of either: costumes for Link that change how he plays or not, could just be cosmetic. Faeries that have abilities/spells or provide buffs. Companions that follow Link around. Or alternate characters that play slightly differently. I mean, it's really not hard to imagine how they could monetize this.
Co-op dungeons could exist, PVP could exist. There are plenty of these games on mobile right now. Zelda on mobile, as a gacha GaaS, could work. And I think it would be a lot of fun.
What are these games you are referring to? That sounds horrible and antithetical to Zelda game design.
Nailed it! But why bother in the first place? IMO, this will cost them in the long-term. As leisure screen time shifts to mobile (COVID times notwithstanding), they were best poised to take advantage of it out of the three traditional console makers, so the fact that they're retreating now is not a good sign. Their target market was the most affected by the shift to mobile and they lack the engineering expertise nor diversification of the other two companies in expanding the set-top box market.
You have to go where your market is (see Microsoft's shift to the cloud).
Just play the story then. They have full fledged campaigns. Play the campaign and quit. There's your game.
Zenonia and all their sequels, but the most recent example is Guardian Tales.
In my book, Dragalia Lost and FE were the only good Nintendo mobile games since they had more freedom. They also were more anime, which makes sense why they did better on mobile since that's a huge niche on there. They had nice aesthetics and Dragalia takes a lot of skill when it comes to running raid and boss bottles.
Got to look at it half glass full
Mario Run 2 is now a switch exclusive
Putting all their eggs in a single basket sounds like a bad idea. Switch is successful but if it's their only platform that's kind of a risk. Maybe their strategy is to branch out into more things like merchandise, movies, theme parks, etc.
Anyway I didn't like any of their mobile efforts so I'm not seeing this as a loss.
Anyway I didn't like any of their mobile efforts so I'm not seeing this as a loss.