
Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone - adventured
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/nintendo-soars-as-super-mario-mobile-game-comes-to-the-iphone
======
Kronopath
There's a common fallacy that happens frequently when Silicon Valley
technologists start talking about Nintendo, and that is the idea that "their
hardware can never compete with the ubiquity of mobile platforms, they should
just become a software company and port their games to iOS and Android!"

The success of Pokémon Go, and this new Mario game as well, is showing that
Nintendo is taking a different strategy: they're creating custom-made mobile
games for the purposes of driving attention and vigor to the main games on
their hardware platforms. You can see this with Pokémon: the success of
Pokémon Go has been driving sales of the 3DS and the currently-released
Pokémon games, and will surely help bolster the hype for the next-generation
games that are due out later this year. As far as strategy goes, these mobile
games are more similar to the TV shows and movies Nintendo makes than the DS
games they came from.

I think this is a good strategy for them. An iPhone or Android will never be
as tailor-made for gaming as the Gameboy or DS were, so it's good to see
Nintendo sticking to their principles.

~~~
dyarosla
I think its a great play by Nintendo to use mobile as a new conversion/user
acquisition channel. I don't think we've seen any changes in the way Nintendo
has been acquiring/marketing to new (non-previously-Nintendo-platform-owning)
customers in the past 5 years. Putting their base IPs on popular mobile
platforms is what appears to be their first modern approach at customer
acquisition and will likely serve as a good upsell strategy to their hardware
platforms.

~~~
Benjammer
I wonder if this is going to become more of the norm, with companies putting
out apps like Pokemon GO that use the brand image over top of a pretty basic
app that's flashy but doesn't have much depth.

It really is just an interactive ad for Nintendo's brand.

<southpark_reference> I wonder if it even knows it's an ad?
</southpark_reference>

------
Fraterkes
I've seen a lot of people saying that Nintendo were kinda dumb for taking so
long to capitalize on the incredible brand recognition of mario and pokemon,
and looking at the money pokemon go is making, I don't disagree. But I think
that the reason a lot of non-nerds cared so much about pokemon go is that
pokemon still meant the same thing to them as it did 10 years ago. So the
reason that those brands are still such a big deal to people may be because
Nintendo has used them relatively conservatively.

~~~
oxide
Franchise fatigue is very real IMO, and it's all the more evident with the
recent trend of annual franchises in video games.

I wonder if Star Wars will suffer the same fate at the box office eventually.

~~~
gkanai
I think the Marvel franchise is quite fatigued atm...

~~~
philliphaydon
I disagree. The problem with marvel is we know what to expect, it's really
hard to outdo any previous movie they release and it feels they are going down
hill, but I often wonder if you swapped the releases of some movies would the
same still hold true that the sequel isn't as good as the first or would the
sequel be better than the first.

~~~
DougN7
> it's really hard to outdo any previous movie they release

This is exactly it. Each epic battle scene is so over the top it's almost
impossible to come up with something even more epic and over the top. Too bad
they don't realize a good story doesn't need that. I thought the older James
Bond movies had it figured out.

~~~
kbenson
They occasionally deliver. The second Captain America movie was a fairly good
spy thriller, IMO.

------
dcw303
It's important to highlight that Nintendo have stayed true to one of their
core principles: that the game should reflect the characteristics of the
hardware it is played on. They've done this to great success before - think of
Super Mario 64 pioneering 3d control with the analog stick, or the wiimote
gestures used in Wii Sports.

They've correctly identified that mobile gaming is done with one hand, and
even if this is not the first runner game on an iPhone, it's the right choice
for a Mario game.

It would have been easy for them to whack up a virtual d-pad in a traditional
2d platform scroller, but I'm glad they've attempted something new.

~~~
gambiting
It literally looks like Rayman Run clone. Not that it's a bad thing, Rayman
Run is excellent, but I don't think Nintendo is pioneering anything here.

~~~
tobiaswk
Just like Rayman Run is a clone of some other thing.

~~~
dawnerd
Pretty sure Canabalt was the first real runner on ios.

~~~
Ysx
First endless runner anywhere! Invented the genre.

~~~
talles
Hmm... I'm not sure about that.

[https://blog.codinghorror.com/bill-gates-and-donkey-
bas/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/bill-gates-and-donkey-bas/)

~~~
qbrass
[http://segaretro.org/Drivemobile](http://segaretro.org/Drivemobile)

------
Mahn
Call me cynical, but I still don't believe that you can clone a endless runner
game, slap Mario on it, and expect it to be successful on mobile. I get that
it's a big deal that Nintendo and Super Mario are coming to mobile, but as
soon as the novelty of the news is off I think they'll face a pretty major
reality check.

~~~
irishbro
I think the Mario IP combined with an App Store feature, which it is almost
certain to get, should give it respectable enough download numbers for
Nintendo to consider it a success. Endless runner games historically don't
monetise as well as other genres so allowing the user to trial the game then
pay a fee for full access might work out better for them than if they had went
the micro-transaction route. The decision to include the one off payment would
suggest to me that they don't see it as an ever-green game with monthly
updates like Pokemon Go and expect it to have a much shorter life.

~~~
794CD01
Did Pokemon even get featured on the App Store? Once your name recognition is
big enough, traditional marketing is just rounding error.

~~~
irishbro
I can't remember for certain if it got a banner feature but I think it did.I
agree though that it had very little effect on the success of Pokemon GO as a
large amount of people downloaded when it was still in soft launch phase and
before it was properly featured by Apple.

Just checked and here in the UK Super Mario Run already has a banner feature
and is top of the new games we love section despite not being available yet to
play yet

------
IBM
Good interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about this.

[http://time.com/4482878/super-mario-run-apple-iphone-
shigeru...](http://time.com/4482878/super-mario-run-apple-iphone-shigeru-
miytamoto/)

------
archagon
Nintendo has a proven track record of making amazing one-button games, so I
really can't bemoan the lack of buttons too much. WarioWare (especially
Twisted) and Rhythm Tengoku/Heaven are among my favorite series and would be a
perfect fit for mobile!

~~~
talles
I was about to say that. Nintendo has tons of games that are perfect for
mobile like you said. There's also Dr. Mario, Mario Puzzle & Dragons, Mario
and Donkey Kong minis on the run... and the list goes on.

------
nstj
No disrespect to Nintendo, as I think the game looks pretty cool, but it's
awesome how the average human's investment memory is now down to 45 days
(remember when Nintendo stock ripped after Pokemon Go?)[0]

> Shares in Nintendo Co tumbled as much as 18 percent on Monday after the
> company said Pokemon GO would have a limited impact on its earnings - their
> biggest setback so far after a huge run-up on the smash-hit game.

[0]: [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nintendo-pokemon-stocks-
id...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nintendo-pokemon-stocks-
idUSKCN10504G)

~~~
chatmasta
The difference is that PGO was developed by Niantic, a third party developer,
who pays Nintendo licensing fees. The licensing terms were not public, so it
makes sense that the initial pricing of Nintendo would favor them to be
optimistic, before correcting to a lower price upon hearing the news from
Nintendo that the fees would minimally affect revenue.

Mario will be developed directly by Nintendo and they will keep 100% of the
revenue it generates.

~~~
dsacco
_> >Mario will be developed directly by Nintendo and they will keep 100% of
the revenue it generates._

Minus the 30% that Apple takes.

~~~
mercer
While possible, I find it hard to believe the Nintendo didn't manage to come
up with a Special Deal just for them. I mean, Nintendo entering the iOS
market, _properly_ entering it, strikes me as worthwhile enough to Apple as
well as Nintendo that they probably made a custom deal.

Or perhaps I'm over-valuing Nintendo's position, of course. Anyone have
thoughts on the matter?

------
pearjuice
Call me skeptical, but it's sad to see how hard the stock market responds to
online buzz of a product not yet in stores and not yet available without even
knowing whether Nintendo will receive any long-term value from it. The current
price is being driven purely on speculation, bang for buck bubble expansion.
As soon as any "real world" effect is revealed regarding the value of
Nintendo, market price will adjust accordingly.

People aren't interested in investing in Nintendo, they just want short term
profit.

~~~
riboflava
It's also serving as a good signal to Nintendo that this path is indeed what
people want. The price will probably correct, good chance to short.

------
partycoder
Nintendo's biggest asset is their intellectual property portfolio with very
strong franchises (Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, etc). In theory, any
of their games could run on a PC, or a rival console. But they leverage their
IP to sell their subpar hardware. This business model worked great for
decades, but as new strong players like Sony and Microsoft joined, now their
influence and revenue is not enough to keep them afloat.

Nintendo needs a share of the mobile gaming market, beyond handheld consoles.
This is why they invested in DeNA (and DeNA invested in Nintendo).

------
CM30
As someone said to me recently, if you said this was a thing ten years ago,
people would have thought you were insane. Nintendo releasing a Mario
platformer for smartphones? What is this sorcery?

They even mentioned not putting Mario on smartphones in 2014:

[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/20/nintendo-has-no-
plans-...](http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/20/nintendo-has-no-plans-for-
mario-on-smartphones)

But hey, here we have a Mario platformer on smartphones which basically acts
exactly as people would expect it to. How times change!

------
codyb
I for one am rooting for releases of their old games on iOS. I've been playing
tons of the Final Fantasy games (Tactics, V, now VII, and earlier I as well)
and I really don't mind paying 10 or 15 bucks for tens of hours of game play
even if I already owned them on the PS1 at one point. If they could release
some of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, I'd probably pick some up.
Especially for a nice price point like seven or eight dollars.

------
wnevets
Nintendo didn't create pokemon go. Pokemon go is really just a skin on top of
Niantic's previous game.

~~~
hbosch
In many ways, Nintendo "created" Pokemon Go simply by lending Niantic their
Pokemon IP. Side by side, Ingress and Pokemon Go are very similar... but the
difference between being a marginal game (Ingress) and being a pop cultural
phenomenon (Pokemon Go) is Nintendo's art and IP.

------
ChuckMcM
I really hope it has virtual bricks that hang in the air over certain spots
and you have to jump up to "hit" them and pop out a coin. The thought of
seeing a crowded square of people essentially doing jumping jacks is really
amusing.

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splatcollision
This looks cute, but now this means that we can look forward to waiting until
they announce Mario Kart for iOS. Would pay like 20 USD for a good
implementation of it - especially with online racing!

------
dpcan
Pokemon Go was a start. Mario runner - everyone expected it, of course.

BUT, I personally believe, should they decide to make it, a Nintendo Universe
game will be the biggest thing to ever hit mobile. If I can create my own
massive Nintendo land, with Mario and Luigi's house, tubes, Koopa Castles,
goombas running around, and then there are mini games to earn "coins", etc....
I think I'd finally play a game on my phone again, the nostalgia-pull would
just be too intense to resist.

~~~
talmand
Why would you want such a game on your phone?

------
hendry
Funnily was playing a "running game" [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fun-
run-2-multiplayer-runnin...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fun-
run-2-multiplayer-running/id920482331?mt=8) with my colleagues for the first
time a couple of days ago. The Genre is fun and works on mobile.

And now it's announced Super Mario Run will be a Nintendo game on IOS.

~~~
philliphaydon
Released on iOS first. So it may well come to android in the future.

------
hudell
I'm not a fan of endless runners (or any smartphone game for that matter) but
one of the few games I enjoyed on mobile was Rayman's endless runner games, so
I may give this one a chance.

~~~
jle17
Same here. Endless runners and their simplistic controls are a good fit for
smartphones, while any action games which tries to mimic gamepad buttons on
the touchscreen ends up being awful to control.

------
jordache
damn how weak must nintendo be to have its market value change so much on a
single game that has yet to be released.

------
tracymorgan8520
Pokemon Go is perfect for mobile gaming but 3D games are impossible to be
playable in the long run on mobile platforms. But, Nintendo is still new in
this area. They made a revolution with Pokemon go and I expect them to push
forward.

~~~
f_m_9
-Usual "The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are two completely independent entitys in this regard" comment goes here.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
So Nintendo are making nothing from Pokémon Go? I thought -- from reading in
various places -- the project was a collaboration between Niantic, Google, and
TPC; and that the latter had Nintendo as the major shareholder (minor
shareholder + using a shell company that they're major shareholder of)?

Am I completely mistaken?

------
ungzd
Who needs this except of those who has nostalgia? It's the same as releasing
pong or space invaders for iOS. Fun to play for 5 minutes and delete from
phone. Nintendo stuck in 80s in technologies and it's only trademark-holder
now. It's already myspace of gamedev.

~~~
hudell
Except they consistently release high rated games year after year.

~~~
eghad
I wouldn't go as far to say they're stuck in the 80s, but when it comes to
technology and current trends Nintendo is consistently considered the lagging
player (the fact that they're still grappling with online gaming and
infrastructure is laughable).

The general consumer doesn't understand how miserable a failure their latest
console was and that the small catalog of "high rated" games (debatable
considering their releases this year) isn't enough to sell that system to an
audience beyond diehards and children. Their pivot into mobile is admirable
(chasing the cohort they lost that made the original Wii a hit), but in terms
of long-term growth anyone looking to invest should hold-off until their next
console (NX) shows promise beyond the mediocre niche they currently occupy.

~~~
mcphage
> but when it comes to technology and current trends Nintendo is consistently
> considered the lagging player

Technology was never their selling point—even the original NES came out with
an 8-bit processor while 16 bit processors were already available. Why?
Because it was cheaper, and easier to develop for.

Their main selling point has always been strong gameplay experiences.

~~~
ungzd
NES had only two types of games: either you jump on top of enemies or you
constantly move right and kick them. Actually there were only two games but
with different sprite images. But even that was wonderful in 1982, because it
happened on your TV, like movie, but controllable by you! And they're trying
to sell the same 'magic VCR where you can control retarded boy jumping on
mushrooms' in 2016. Except on phone handsets instead of TV sets. Maybe someone
will be heavily impressed that instead of dialing and talking you control
virtual italian plumber right on your telephone!

~~~
zerohm
Off the top of my head I can think of many other 'types' of NES games that
break the side scroll paradigm. For example:

Top down action RPG (Zelda)

Decision based RPG (Dragon Warrior)

Picture games (Anticipation)

Game show games (Family Fued)

Sports / Racing games (Punch Out, Rad Racer)

ETC.

