Investor Briefing (Jan. 2017): Kimishima on Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing mobile
During the usual meeting with investors, which always follows the presentation of the latest financial results, Tatsumi Kimishima talked about two of their mobile games: Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing.
Tatsumi Kimishima starts by reminding investors that Fire Emblem Heroes will be released tomorrow (on February 2nd), in 39 countries, and on both Android / iOS this time around. He explains that many of the fans are in their 20s / 30s, and thanks the Nintendo 3DS entries, the series has become really popular overseas.
Fire Emblem Heroes makes various changes to the Fire Emblem formula (small maps, no proper relationship system — at least at launch –), but does keep most of the major elements such as the “deep battle system and the joy of training your characters.” As mentioned in this interview, it was developed in order to appeal to both long-time fans and newcomers.
It’s a Free 2 Play title, where players can collect heroes from the various entries in the Fire Emblem series. You get them via summoning, which uses orbs, and said orbs can be obtained by playing normally or by using real money. It’s also random: you have no way to know in advance which character you are going to get, in typical gacha fashion.
Quite surprisingly, Kimishima doesn’t say anything really new about Fire Emblem Heroes, not even that its gacha system is perfectly adapted to the Japanese market (it’s pretty much the exact same thing found in many other popular smart device games in Japan).
However, he did explain why the Animal Crossing mobile game, originally supposed to launch before April, was once again delayed. Basically, it’s because Nintendo want to take the time to include all the content they want, and properly support the distribution of the game. With Super Mario Run now launching in March on Android, it was most definitely a wise move to avoid launching two games during the same month.
Fire Emblem Heroes (Android / iOS) will be released on February 2nd worldwide. Animal Crossing (Android / iOS) will be released later this year.
Source: Nintendo
