Even with 200 million downloads, Nintendo says its first ever mobile game Super Mario Run has failed to reach “an acceptable profit point”. Nintendo also revealed that 90% of downloads for its enormously popular came from outside of Japan. Although the game is free to download, it does require a one time in-app purchase of $9.99 to unlock the whole game.
Meanwhile, Nintendo’s other game Fire Emblem Heroes, which has a more typical free-to-play structure and has tons of micro transactions to offer, has been much more profitable for the company. While the Japanese game developer has not released any specific numbers for the game, it says that Heroes’ success has largely been due to its continual updates since its debut earlier this year.
“For this title, we listened to the voices of our consumers and provided continual updates,” Nintendo says. “As a result, we are on track to meet our overall business objectives, including our profit objectives.”
As for Mario Run, while the game may not have been as profitable as Nintendo hoped, it has proven to be successful in other ways. It introduced the series to markets where Nintendo previously had no presence, and it appears to have had a positive impact on the just-released Super Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch — Nintendo says the console game has sold two million copies in its first three days of availability.
Nintendo is now looking to continue the success of Fire Emblem Heroes with the release of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on mobile next month. Check out an early teaser of the upcoming Nintendo game at this link.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
If they had prices it at $4.99 CND they would have seen a much more positive response.
It was too expensive for what it was. I paid the $9 and after two days had finished the game and the replay ability just wasn’t there. I think I played a few more days against others online (or at least ghosts of their runs) and the way it matched you up against people was just so random sometimes it was sooooo easy other times it was impossible, there really wasn’t much in between, and only playing snip-its of the same levels just wasn’t that much fun. The new update made it slightly more fun but really that only lasted a few days. The whole ticket system made sense for free to play but the game wasn’t free to play. So there are free to play aspects but you have to play to put up with them…..
I recently purchased it when it was on sale for $6.99. Even then, I think it’s over priced. 6 levels that you can get through pretty quickly and that’s pretty much it. They have some, for lack of a better term, mini game aspects that you can keep playing but they’re essentially the same thing over and over. As well, I find the inability to do anything other than simply jump kind of frustrating while playing.
Nintendo should stop making smartphone games. Smartphone games are just trash. Focus on Nintendo Switch.
Maybe they shouldve gone the Freenium way. Make the game free, enjoy having millions of users, and make it profitable by selling more levels at 1/2$ per mini-stories. You fidelize the gamer with free content and once he’s hooked, you sell him other levels to enhance the gameplay.
I bought it Day 1 and loved it. Still on my home screen. Most people I know didn’t buy it because of price, though I find that absurd considering it’s $10 vs the cost of non-smartphone games. They probably would have made more money at a lower price point. Not everyone grew up on Mario so they just don’t get it.
$13 Canadian though.
Mario odyssey would have sold that many without Mario run existing.