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Nintendo Announces First Smartphone ‘Game’ Called Miitomo
Nintendo has announced its first partnership project with DeNA, but it’s not the Mario game you might have been expecting. In fact, it’s unclear if Miitomo, the first of five partnership projects due by March 2017, is a game at all.
The news was announced during a question-and-answer session of an investor and analyst meeting held on Thursday morning in Japan. At the same time, Nintendo delayed the launch of its first smartphone app from this year to March 2016.
Miitomo allows users to create Miis (just like on other Nintendo devices), with the intent of giving people who are hesitant about sharing personal details about themselves a way to do so. CEO Tatsumi Kimishima says that these will be “friendly conversation starters” in hopes of “deepening friendships.”
It seems like the Miitomo characters will communicate and leave messages with friends automatically. The Mii will ask questions of the user which he or she can answer. You’ll only be able to communicate with those whom you’ve added (similar to Nintendo’s other communication platforms).
[Source: Nintendo]
Our Take
This doesn’t seem like much of a game, at least in the traditional sense. And unless Nintendo hasn’t revealed it, it doesn’t appear to have the quirkiness of interactions that Tomodachi Life offers.
Perhaps this is a good fit for the Japanese audience, but one more communication platform in my life seems like the least appealing thing Nintendo could do for its first foray into mobile. Hopefully the second effort will be something more interesting.
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