Nintendo revealed its plan to enter the smartphone market seven months ago. The company fulfilled that promise Thursday when it announced an upcoming game called "Miitomo" developed exclusively for mobile phones.
Miitomo will let players use and customize avatars that can talk to each other. There were no clear details revealed, particularly with respect to the gameplay, but some believe that the concept might be related to the hugely popular "Mario Maker" that Nintendo made for the Wii U console. The game will be free for download, but it will feature in-game purchases, potentially in customizing avatars and other character add-ons, according to Daily Star.
Aside from "Miitomo," Nintendo will also be making other games for iOS and Android platforms in collaboration with indie development studio DeNa. This is aligned with the company's big push to join the mobile gaming fray. "We aim to make each title a hit," Satoru Iwata, former president at Nintendo, said in an Inquistr report.
The announcement of "Miitomo" in Kyoto, however, does not mean that the game will be available this year or this coming holiday. It will hit mobile phones on March of next year. The delay is partly attribued to Nintendo's goal of promoting the app after the flurry of holiday marketing of the holiday titles for the 3DS and Wii U, Ars Technica reported.
Observers believe that the mobile device and smartphone-gaming market is a huge opportunity for Nintendo, explaining the about-face for a company that chose to rely on a traditional console-based game model for a long time, noted The Wall Street Journal. The company has been struggling with dropping sales recently. It appears that the expectation is legitimate. Fans have been clamoring for Nintendo to develop a game for mobile phones.
