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Nintendo Not Limiting Itself To Free-To-Play, Will Lead Mobile Development
Yesterday, Nintendo announced a dramatic reversal in its position on mobile gaming. At a joint press conference with DeNA, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that his company’s intellectual property would be the basis for a number of upcoming mobile titles.
Given DeNA’s extensive history of developing free-to-play titles, as well as Nintendo’s own dabbling with that business model, expectations of a similar focus here weren’t unreasonable. However, Iwata says that he’s not ruling out premium titles.
In an interview with Time, he explains his reasoning. “The free-to-start model will naturally be an option for us to consider,” Iwata says. “On the other hand, even in the world of smart device apps, the business model continues to change. Accordingly, for each title, we will discuss with DeNA and decide the most appropriate payment method.”
He follows with a reaffirming a statement we’ve heard from him many times. Nintendo won’t risk hurting the brand image or the value of the intellectual property, and that also goes for picking a business model.
Iwata also says that Nintendo will be in the lead with regard to development of mobile titles. DeNA will be handling the service back-end and consulting on how to attract players for short bursts on a daily basis.
The announcement yesterday was simply the introduction to Nintendo’s new venture and its partnership with DeNA. Given the company’s commitment to release at least one title in 2015, we expect to know more soon.
[Source: Time]
Our Take
While Iwata says that premium is still on the table, he quickly reverts back to using language more closely linked with free-to-play. DeNA’s expertise and experience, as well as the general desire to bring people in a for a short time every day is how many engage with freemium titles.
Thankfully, Nintendo also has experience with that gameplay loop. Animal Crossing games feature that same “quick visit” mentality in a pay-once format. The question is how the company will monetize that hook in such a way that its venture into mobile is the financial windfall the company wants.
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