Some sources claim that Nintendo advises the partners who work on its smartphone games to focus on the fun factor instead of monetization. The company perceives the smartphone gaming platform as a path that can guide customers towards its consoles and games.
One of the sources suggests that Nintendo seeks to protect its brand image. In most cases, free-to-play games are often associated with greedy mechanics, and it appears that the company has asked two partners to limit all the mechanics which may encourage excessive spending.
As expected, the requirement wasn’t appreciated by the partners, since it limits the revenue which can be obtained by offering the popular properties. The developer of the popular Dragalia Lost has declared that Nintendo got in touch with the company and asked them to reduce the monetization level. It was also noted that Nintendo doesn’t seem to be interested in gaining a large amount of revenue from the title. If the studio were able to manage the game independently, it would have made more money in the long run. It’s clear that the developers aren’t thrilled by Nintendo’s policy.
Nintendo Advises Partners To Focus On Fun and Quality, Not Monetization, And Limit Micro-Transactions
The studio which made Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp seems to share the opinion, adding that the smartphone games didn’t earn too much. The statement is a bit bizarre since both titles managed to generate at least $110 million as of 2018.
The statements provided by the publisher reflect the harsh reality of the smartphone gaming market. At first, most developers offered fully-featured games in exchange for a standard price, without bundling in-app purchases. The situation has changed as time passed on most of the titles which are provided today are free-to-play but come with annoying mechanics which ask for money in one or another.
The fact that Nintendo doesn’t wish to join the cesspool of greedy publishers (EA) is quite inspiring. Two smartphone games will be released by the company this year, and it is likely that they will be great.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.