Nintendo Prefers the ‘Super Mario Run’ Model for Mobile Gaming

Back in December, Nintendo released Super Mario Run on the iOS market. It enjoyed record-breaking success in the first few weeks, then plateaued rather quickly. It made Nintendo less money than they and others had hoped. This hasn't stopped them from preferring the Super Mario Run game model over others.

Super Mario Run is a traditional pay-once-and-it's-yours type of game. $9.99 unlocks the whole game and any updates. Nintendo has since released another game, Fire Emblem Heroes which follows a freemium model. Their sales numbers haven't been released on Fire Emblem Heroes, but the game seems to be more of a "cash cow."

"'Heroes' is an outlier," a senior company official said. "We honestly prefer the 'Super Mario Run' model."

So even though Super Mario Run technically made less money and "did not meet our expectations," according to Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima in an interview with Nikkei. Nintendo prefers the model nonetheless.

Could this be a good thing for mobile gaming? The quality of mobile games has increased dramatically since their initial creation, but could Nintendo's insistence on quality and traditional pricing push the platform to new levels?