Investor Briefing (Apr. 2017): Kimishima on mobile games (Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes)

During the latest meeting with investors, on April 28th, Tatsumi Kimishima talked at great lengths about Nintendo’s mobile games.

The first graph shows the mobile games / updates Nintendo released during the past Fiscal Year:

Tatsumi Kimishima points out that Fiscal Year 2016-17 saw Nintendo fully kickstart their mobile business, with Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Since the mobile business is different from the dedicated video game business, they chose to go with radically different pricing schemes for each title.

Nintendo took advantage of the huge install base of smartphones to reach many consumers they wouldn’t have reached otherwise, and were able to generate buzz around their IP.

Even if some of the titles were not too successful (like Miitomo), it was all worth it: they believe that the various releases allowed them to experiment with purchasing systems and services after release, and learn a lot. What’s more, the synergies with the dedicated video game business have brought valuable insights, that will help them grow the business going forward.

Since launch, Super Mario Run has been downloaded almost 150 million times, in over 165 countries. Granted, the game was pretty popular in Europe, Japan, and North America, but with this game, Nintendo was also able to reach customers in regions where the company never had an official presence before.

Many users chose to keep playing the free version of the game, but the number of users who chose to buy the full game is increasing “gradually”, according to Tatsumi Kimishima.

The president of Nintendo also mentioned the major update released alongside the Android version (Ver. 2.0), that added new content (including some that’s available for free). He’s well aware that adding more content for free may extend the time between download and purchase of the full game, and he believes that both first-timers users and players who had already downloaded the game will be able to enjoy it more.

He reiterated Nintendo’s plans to hold various events in order to make sure players keep playing Super Mario Run. Their ultimate goal is to turn it into an “evergreen application with broad popularity worldwide that can be played without worrying about additional purchases”.

As for Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo chose to focus on two key aspects:

• operations
• paying attention to what users are saying about the game, for the frequent updates and events.

Nintendo’s goal is to make the game enjoyable over a long period of time. Regarding micro-transactions, Tatsumi Kimishima explained that Nintendo valued “the trust of our consumers”, which is why they try to go with as fair a pricing scheme as possible. So far, the company is pretty satisfied with the amount of revenue generated by Fire Emblem Heroes.

Unfortunately, Tatsumi Kimishima didn’t say a word about Animal Crossing, or the other upcoming games for mobile platforms.

Source: Nintendo