Nintendo Mobile Strategy May Be Changing With Success Of ‘Pokémon GO’


Nintendo mobile strategy could be changing if announcements this week are any indication. There is no doubt that the success of the recently released Pokémon GO has turned quite a few heads. Survey Monkey’s statement that Pokémon GO is now considered the most successful launch in the history of mobile gaming helps put things into perspective.

While downloads are nice, the number one metric that any business revolves around is dollars. Pokemon GO is not short on that either. On Wednesday of this week, VG24/7 noted that according to Sensor Tower, Pokémon GO had earned an astounding $35 million in just two weeks. Since that report, GO went live in The Pokemon Company and Nintendo’s native country of Japan.

While these numbers are truly once in a lifetime opportunities, it is reasonable to believe that this may be changing the Nintendo mobile strategy moving forward. The changes could possibly be seen as early as this fall if the latest announcements from Nintendo are any indication.

This past week Nintendo U.K. released a statement that Animal Crossing: New Leaf would be receiving a free update this fall. In the statement, the fall update would allow players the opportunity to use Nintendo Amiibo characters and cards in a New Leaf that is currently available for Nintendo’s 3DS handheld device.

[Image via Nintendo U.K.]
There are a couple of pieces of information that are intriguing concerning this update. The first is the fact that Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released on November 2, 2012. Four-year-old games rarely receive updates. Most of the time a sequel is usually in order.

It should be noted that Nintendo’s Amiibo line of figures for Animal Crossing have not sold really well. The figures were designed for the Wii U title Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival that was released to poor reviews November 2012. Nintendo could simply be adding functionality to New Leaf to push more Amiibo, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

Image via Nintendo U.K.

In April, Forbes reported that Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima announced to investors at the shareholders call two new intellectual properties that were to be released in the fall for Nintendo mobile.

“As we report the results of the last fiscal year, we also look forward to an exciting period ahead with further growth in our mobile business, new products for our dedicated video game systems and continued progress in our efforts to increase the number of consumers experiencing our IP through games, licensing and expanded entertainment.”

Those two properties will be the role-playing game (RPG) Fire Emblem and the previously mentioned property Animal Crossing. While Fire Emblem seems to be a stand-alone game, Animal Crossing is a different story.

“Nintendo will design the latter game so that it will be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems. By playing both Animal Crossing games, users will find increased enjoyment.”

It was first speculated that the Animal Crossing mobile game would most likely share some functionality with the upcoming console codenamed NX. However, Nintendo has since announced that the NX will not be available until March 2017. It seems to be more than a coincidence that the new update for Animal Crossing: New Leaf and the Animal Crossing mobile game are due to release in the same time period.

While recent reports are contending that Nintendo’s share of the Pokémon GO pie is not quite as much as the stock market has anticipated, the fact that on the heels of the most successful launch in the history of mobile gaming Nintendo decided to fast track an Animal Crossing update could not possibly be a coincidence.

What still has not been decided is the two final mobile apps that are due to release for Nintendo prior to the end of their fiscal year, March 2017. It is a safe bet that Nintendo mobile strategy for those two will be influenced greatly by the success of Pokémon GO.

[Image via Nintendo]

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