I wonder how they’ll monetize everything going forward
It feels like forever ago that Nintendo revealed that they were getting into the very same mobile market they once scoffed at (“the 3DS is mobile!”), and it kind of was.
Back in 2015 the publisher told us that they were starting to work on a string of mobile games, a stable to date that includes Fire Emblem Heroes, Miitomo, and Super Mario Run, all of which have used different monetization schemes (gashapan/gambling, actually free, free-to-start).
As we know there’s more in the pipeline, but now we know just how many people at mobile partner DeNA are involved in that process. According to Gamesindustry.biz, the firm has committed 10% of its entire staff for Nintendo related dealings. That may not sound like much, but for a 1,000 strong studio that’s 100 people — far more than the average mobile title.
I’m really curious to see where they go in the future. Super Mario Run “did not meet expectations” despite being advertised at literally every Apple Store across the country, and the (in this writer’s opinion anyway) questionable gambling model of Fire Emblem Heroes exceeded projections. It’s kind of obvious what model they might gravitate toward in the future, but it’s still weird to me to see Nintendo put out mainstream gashapon games.
DeNA has 10% of games staff working on Nintendo projects [Gamesindustry.biz]
