According to a new Bloomberg report, Nintendo is seemingly backing away from the mobile market and choosing to instead focus on its strong console business. “We are not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market,” Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said, which caused company stock to dip by 4% one day later. The company doesn’t expect any big gains this fiscal year from its mobile operation, and will instead turn its gaze to supporting currently available games. Nintendo’s development partner, DeNa, likewise indicated that it’ll be a while yet before we see another new release from them.
Nintendo, which first announced real interest into the mobile market five years ago, has since released multiple titles based on its franchises, none of which set the world on fire. Even as other games saw revenue boost as a result of coronavirus lockdowns worldwide, Nintendo’s games declined. Nintendo faced criticism in the past for how it monetises its games. More recently, Mario Kart Tour - a free-to-play game - was ridiculed for having a $5 monthly subscription. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Nintendo asked its development partners to ease up on the requirements for players to spend money. There’s also the fact Nintendo just hasn’t landed on a winning formula for mobile. The company tried the free-to-start, premium model with Super Mario Run, before later switching to entirely free-to-play with Mario Kart - neither have seemingly worked.
