Will Mario on mobile revitalize Nintendo?
Weekly recap: With all eyes on Apple and Sony this week, Nintendo makes one of its most important announcements in years
With a shortened news week due to the Labor Day holiday in America, all eyes collectively focused their attention on Wednesday's proceedings when both Apple and Sony held press conferences. The GI.biz staff and numerous analysts have already weighed in on the PlayStation announcements (and you can check out Rob Fahey's take today), so there's no need to rehash all the opinions and arguments here. That being said, I do find it interesting that Microsoft was so quick to react to the PS4 Pro by commenting about how "obvious" Xbox Scorpio's power will be when the new hardware releases some time in 2017. I think the fact that PS4 Pro is launching with true 4K and HDR gaming this year took the Xbox team by surprise. Yes, 6 teraflops is considerably more than the 4.2 PS4 Pro offers, but I'm not sure consumers will be thinking they need to wait when PS4 Pro is available this holiday.
Anyway, moving on to the big Nintendo news this week - as you've all no doubt seen, Mario will finally be making his smartphone debut this December. This is a pivotal moment in Nintendo's history and the reception to Super Mario Run will undoubtedly factor heavily into how the company pursues the mobile space in the months and years ahead. Yes, Pokemon GO has been phenomenally successful, but as Nintendo had to remind investors at the time, it's a Niantic-developed title and Nintendo only owns a small part of Pokemon, so the financial impact is not huge at all. Mario, on the other hand, is Nintendo's through and through and indeed, the Italian plumber has become one of the greatest icons in entertainment, alongside figures like Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny.
"If there's one property with enough global and mainstream appeal to surpass [Pokemon GO's record], Mario could very well be it."
With Shigeru Miyamoto actually taking the stage at the Apple event to introduce Super Mario Run - and who could have imagined that just a couple years ago? - Nintendo is finally committing its greatest property to the mobile space. The company is saying "we're all in." Personally, I never thought I'd see the day that a Mario game appeared on a non-Nintendo platform, but here we are. But the reality is that it's not a "true" Mario game. While Super Mario Run looks like a typical Mario game, it's been designed for the "endless runner" genre that has terribly saturated mobile app stores. Miyamoto stressed that you can play with one hand while riding the subway or eating a hamburger. That kind of simplistic, reductionistic gameplay may feel like a slight to fans of Nintendo's most beloved and most valuable property, but Nintendo is likely not targeting its core base with Super Mario Run. The company realizes that its core fans will continue to play Mario games on NX anyway. No, Super Mario Run has clearly been designed to entice brand-new fans or lapsed console gamers to take a look at the more in-depth Mario titles that can only be played on a proper system like the NX.
Former president Satoru Iwata once lamented the state of mobile gaming, and offered the opinion that Nintendo's cherished IP runs the risk of being too watered-down to fit the mobile platform, and yet with Super Mario Run that's ironically what the world will be getting - a watered down Mario that may retain much of the charm of its more sophisticated console cousins but can't compete on depth of course. And from a business standpoint, I certainly can't blame Nintendo for taking this direction. It's precisely what shareholders and investors have been nagging the company about for years now, and with the Wii U having completely tanked and 3DS sales fading, Nintendo had little choice. The early reaction from investors was quite positive, as Nintendo's stock soared almost 30% the day Super Mario Run was announced. It's leveled off since then, but as I write this (Thursday evening), the stock is still trading at a very respectable $33.90.
Pokemon GO became the fastest mobile game to reach $500 million in revenues, according to App Annie, reaching the milestone in just over two months. If there's one property with enough global and mainstream appeal to surpass that, Mario could very well be it. With no new hardware or major console game launches for Nintendo this holiday season, Super Mario Run is going to be the company's big push, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a full-court press on the marketing side to give the title the best possible chance at success. This will be a huge test for Nintendo, as we'll all finally get to see how the power of its brand can translate to mobile, and I think it's one that the company will pass with flying colors.
Elsewhere on GamesIndustry.biz this week
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has acknowledged how influential Pokemon GO may be for Sony's own mobile plans
In other news
The European Women in Games Conference announced its winners for 2016