After several months of waiting, Nintendo Co. finally broke its silence as it announced details of the release of its first video game for smartphones, during an investors meeting on Oct. 29, Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.
Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima called the free-to-use game "Miitomo." The first of five long-awaited smartphone apps that Nintendo intended to release, "Miitomo" was introduced after weak financial reports urged the company to release a development in their console operations.
Although the initial plan was to release the first app by the end of 2015, the release date was pushed back to the spring of next year. By March 2017, Nintendo plans to release all five games. Unlike Miitomo, the following games will be traditional paid apps, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Initial introduction of the app revealed that Miitomo will be less of a game and more of a social communication app where users may design their own avatars, or miis, to communicate with other users. Instructions on how the game is to be played are still unclear, but it will be free for download with an option to add characters via in-app purchases.
Nintendo won't be releasing its most famous character, Mario, and the others until a later date. Analysts think the company probably won't risk characters like Mario on an unproven mobile format but might introduce them later.
A new membership service called "Nintendo Account" is also set to be released to connect users of its hardware as well as PCs and mobile devices. The cloud-based service is for users to be able to transfer data between mobile games and console games.
In March the company announced its intentions to partner up with DeNa Co., a Japanese developer, to develop multiple smartphone games using Nintendo properties. Although the company's decision to enter into the smartphone applications market was surprising considering that it had vehemently refused to do so in the past years, the move was not ultimately unexpected. The sales in 3Ds portable game system and Wii consoles have been disappointing of late, and turning to the smartphone business is an avenue for revenue.
With Nintendo's already established reputation in video game development, it might find an even wider growth on iOs and Android.
