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[JB2448]

Also, Super Mario Run's Android release was reconfirmed for next year.

https://twitter.com/serkantoto/status/812239279393013760
Given the low, regulated amount of smartphone output, smartphone game development shouldn't take many resources away from Switch game development at all.
What does GAF think?

// Mod Edit:

For the curious as to how this compares to other mobile publishers:

1.) Relative to major Western mobile publishers, this would be on the higher end. Supercell (Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Boom Beach) releases about one game a year. MachineZone (Game of War, Mobile Strike) is probably a bit less than that. King.com (Candy Crush, now part of Activision) is about 2-3 games as well. Even EA, who used to release hundreds a year, is now around 3-5 EA branded mobile titles a year.

2.) Relative to major Japanese mobile publishers, this would be on the lower end. There are some publishers doing 3-5 a year like COLOPL or Konami, but there are also quite a few doing 8-10+ like Square Enix, and Bandai Namco is maybe double that. Mixi (Monster Strike) and Gung-Ho (Puzzle & Dragons) have the most comparable output.

As for Nintendo, we know Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are out next year, so presumably that puts maybe one more game in the Fall.

If Kimishima was talking about fiscal years, then we'd have 2-3 more games between April 2017 and March 2018.

Update:

 

[Broken Joystick]

Warioware game please Nintendo.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

Excited for the Animal Crossing title and to see how it hooks into New Leaf or AC Switch.

 

[SMD]

Captain Rainbow please.

 

[L Thammy]

I wonder how many people in the world can get 50 million downloads and call it expected.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Warioware game please Nintendo.

Thissss so much

 

[calc84maniac]

Captain Rainbow please.

That would set some download records... in the opposite direction

 

[Calm Mind]

Warioware game please Nintendo.

Kyle McLain agrees with you. https://twitter.com/FarmboyinJapan/status/812152082044071936

 

[Eila]

Murasame Castle fruit ninja clone

 

[L Thammy]

Captain Rainbow please.

Famicom Detective Club please.

 

[cw_sasuke]

I like that they arent just bombarding the market with mobile games but give every release some room to breath. SMR was a safe choice, but im really interested in AC and Fire Emblem.

 

[Brazil]

I'll have a serving of Advance Wars, Nintendo. Thanks.

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

Keep giving us games built around mobile and I will be happy. Hopefully it will draw more people into their hardware which will in turn keep their core games in production long term.

 

[hamchan]

Animal Crossing has the most potential to be a money making machine.

 

[Lexxism]

Animal Crossing has the most potential to be a money making machine.

And I'm going to be one of those suckers who will fall for it!

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Given the low, regulated amount of smartphone output, smartphone game development shouldn't take many resources away from Switch game development at all.
What does GAF think?

Considering mobile development is its own division, it shouldn't.

 

[Alrus]

If handled correctly, Fire Emblem and AC are going to make so much money it's going to be gross.

 

[Peltz]

2-3 per year is a perfect sweet spot in my opinion.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Animal Crossing has the most potential to be a money making machine.

Would be a big mistake to make it some iAP fest though - but yeah the spending cap on FE and AC will likely be much higher compared to the 10 bucks in Mario...if there even is one lol.

I'll have a serving of Advance Wars, Nintendo. Thanks.

They want to make some money as well on mobile though.

 

[BrainZEROX]

I'll have a serving of Advance Wars, Nintendo. Thanks.

Warbits has you covered until then.

 

[Oregano]

Considering the low amount of releases and their stated aim to work as promotions for their dedicated devices I wouldn't expect any IPs that aren't currently relevant.

So don't expect Warioware, Advance Wars or Metroid any time soon.

 

[oti]

2-3 per year is a perfect sweet spot in my opinion.

I'd say make it 4. One new Nintendo game every three months sounds like a cool thing to look forward to.

 

[Graphics Horse]

I'm not convinced they will still have 2 more titles out by March, but we've barely seen anything of Switch either so it's probably misplaced

 

[Graphics Horse]

So don't expect Warioware, Advance Wars or Metroid any time soon.

How about Mewtroid?
https://youtu.be/QXLSu7YCrWI

 

[Oregano]

How about Mewtroid?

Mewtroid: Federation Paws

 

[Nirolak]

1) In an interview with Kyoto Shimbun (http://kyoto-np.co.jp/top/article/20161223000052 &#8230, Nintendo president Kimishima says Mario Run’s numbers are as expected.

2) He reconfirms an Android release for next year. More importantly, he says Nintendo plans 2-3 smartphone releases per year from 2017. /end

Source: https://twitter.com/serkantoto/status/812239279393013760

For the curious as to how this compares to other mobile publishers:

1.) Relative to major Western mobile publishers, this would be on the higher end. Supercell (Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, Boom Beach) releases about one game a year. MachineZone (Game of War, Mobile Strike) is probably a bit less than that. King.com (Candy Crush, now part of Activision) is about 2-3 games as well. Even EA, who used to release hundreds a year, is now around 3-5 EA branded mobile titles a year.

2.) Relative to major Japanese mobile publishers, this would be on the lower end. There are some publishers doing 3-5 a year like COLOPL or Konami, but there are also quite a few doing 8-10+ like Square Enix, and Bandai Namco is maybe double that. Mixi (Monster Strike) and Gung-Ho (Puzzle & Dragons) have the most comparable output.

As for Nintendo, we know Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are out next year, so presumably that puts maybe one more game in the Fall.

If Kimishima was talking about fiscal years, then we'd have 2-3 more games between April 2017 and March 2018.

Update:

 

[Tagyhag]

I'm still hopeful for Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, especially the latter. It's kinda hard to mess up turn based on phones.

 

[psyfi]

Huh, somehow that's hard to imagine, but only because I'm still getting used to the idea of Nintendo on mobile. I'm really curious to see how this progresses.

Edit : Also, I'm surprised to find myself feeling entirely unconcerned about this. I'm kind of excited to see Nintendo in this space.

 

[DecoReturns]

Seems rather low no?

Sorry I know little to nothing about the Mobil market. Maybe they want the titles they put out to stay relevant?

Edit: never mind. Seems to be a good amount compare to other publishers

 

[capitalCORN]

This should really help the Switch!

 

[Kouriozan]

As long as it don't eat a lot of their staff, it should be fine.
But then they'll eventually release "standard" mobile games that'll require constant updates, hmm....

Seems rather low no?

Sorry I know little to nothing about the Mobil market. Maybe they want the titles they put out to stay relevant?

If you compare to other huge mobile publishers, that's a lot.
Supercell for example only have 4 games, iirc.

 

[AniHawk]

Seems rather low no?

Sorry I know little to nothing about the Mobil market. Maybe they want the titles they put out to stay relevant?

my understanding is that the days of shitting out a dozen games in a year is basically over, and that it's better to focus on making less software, but putting more time into it and making it better.

 

[Nirolak]

The thing to remember is that most mobile games are also service titles, so the people making Fire Emblem for example are most likely going to be putting out updates every 2-4 weeks for the next 5+ years instead of going on to work on a different game.

To an extent, every game you add requires a new development team to be created and maintained.

Obviously paid games like Super Mario Run are a bit different.

 

[LordRaptor]

Obviously paid games like Super Mario Run are a bit different.

Yeah, I was going to ask if you think this is indicative of their approach being that mobile is / can be a touch screen oriented traditional handheld gaming device rather than approaching it as 'traditional' mobile successes do (as a service)

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

We've had three mobile games from them this year (well, 2.5, since Pokemon Go isn't technically 100% theirs) so it sounds like they're just keeping a steady momentum?

 

[PSGames]

Can we get a more fleshed out Yoshi Touch n Go please? Gameplay would be perfect for mobile.

 

[Naked Snake]

The thing to remember is that most mobile games are also service titles, so the people making Fire Emblem for example are most likely going to be putting out updates every 2-4 weeks for the next 5+ years instead of going on to work on a different game.

To an extent, every game you add requires a new development team to be created and maintained.

Obviously paid games like Super Mario Run are a bit different.

Sounds like this will negate the advantage of the Switch allowing Nintendo to focus all its teams to one platform.

 

[Nirolak]

Yeah, I was going to ask if you think this is indicative of their approach being that mobile is / can be a touch screen oriented traditional handheld gaming device rather than approaching it as 'traditional' mobile successes do (as a service)

DeNA implied Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are service games, so I suspect it's a mix of the two depending on what they feel best suits the IP.

 

[Oregano]

Huh, I thought someone had already made a thread on this?

Either way I will reiterate that this indicates to me that they'll be sticking to key brands for the time being.

EDIT:

Sounds like this will negate the advantage of the Switch allowing Nintendo to focus all its teams to one platform.

Not really, the teams will likely be tiny and 2-3 games a year is already a tiny fraction of Nintendo's output.

 

[DecoReturns]

Sounds like this will negate the advantage of the Switch allowing Nintendo to focus all its teams to one platform.

DENA will probably be doing this. Not Nintendo

 

[Nirolak]

Sounds like this will negate the advantage of the Switch allowing Nintendo to focus all its teams to one platform.

There will be an extent to which this impacts their own staff, yes, though they also have DeNA housing a lot of staff for the titles.

Huh, I thought someone had already made a thread on this?

Either way I will reiterate that this indicates to me that they'll be sticking to key brands for the time being.

I think that makes the most sense. Big IPs help tremendously with user acquisition costs on mobile.

 

[Wandering Robot]

Hopefully this means
1. consistent money flowing in, and
2. better mindshare for Nintendo.

It remains to be seen what other IPs will make an appearance on the mobile market, but if Nintendo goes in willing and able to experiment, that could mean interesting results for their full-fledged projects.

Spoiler

If they make a Metroid mobile game and it does well, that means they HAVE to make a Switch Metroid one, right?!

 

[Qwark]

I really hope Fire Emblem isn't F2P Gacha. I am willing to pay for a premium mobile game. I just hope the negative SMR feedback and the potential to make more as F2P doesn't sway Nintendo the other way.

 

[Kurdel]

Aw fuck does that mean their timetable will be equality spaced out, making animal crossing a end spring/summer game?

 

[Omega Kirby]

Hopefully some of these come down the line

Paper Mario/ Mario and Luigi RPG's
Waverace
Advance Wars
WarioWare

 

[Oregano]

There will be an extent to which this impacts their own staff, yes, though they also have DeNA housing a lot of staff for the titles.


I think that makes the most sense. Big IPs help tremendously with user acquisition costs on mobile.

Agreed, a lot of people were hoping for stuff like Advance Wars though. The only "dead" IPs I could see them revisiting specifically on mobile would be Touch Generations, especially Nintendogs.

 

[chillybright]

Release content updates as opposed to more games is how you mobile gaming.

I was baffled by no more content updates for SMR. But Nintendo is gonna Nintendo.

 

[Naked Snake]

.

Spoiler

If they make a Metroid mobile game and it does well, that means they HAVE to make a Switch Metroid one, right?!

Metroid with touch controls... Do not want.

 

[Wensih]

Where's that thread of people shouting Nintendo would never stoop so low as to release Nintendo titles on mobile. I feel like this thread should be linked to every thread involving Nintendo's mobile business. Really looking forward to seeing what fire emblem and animal crossing look like!

 

[Oregano]

Release content updates as opposed to more games is how you mobile gaming.

I was baffled by no more content updates for SMR. But Nintendo is gonna Nintendo.

I wouldn't take a nameless Nintendo Rep's word as gospel.