While I’m sure we were all a little skeptical when Nintendo announced their going to focus on mobile titles, Nintendo’s first smartphone app MiiTomo has become the top downloaded app in Japan after only three days. Nintendo’s social app has reached over 1 million downloads in less than a week. MiiTomo has already beaten out Line, Japan’s most popular direct messaging and video app for five years. A US and European release date have not been confirmed, but it should be coming soon in 2016.
Nintendo’s MiiTomo app is a social networking app that uses the Mii we’ve all been familiar with since 2006 (The Wii is almost ten years old people!). In MiiTomo you create your Mii, customize it by giving it a voice and personality, and socialize with other MiiTomo users. The app encourages socializing by having the Mii ask fun questions like”If you had one wish what would it be.” You can then see other users answers to the question and responses to their answers. Nintendo is trying to emphasize the “social” part of social media by having the game ask questions about others instead of bragging about yourself (see:every other social networking site).
It seems that MiiTomo could have the same success as the Wii thanks to it’s simplicity and accessibility. The app shares some similarities with Tomodachi Life, which was also a surprisingly successful. The Miis and Wii Sports attracted a huge audience for the Wii, so it was a good move by Nintendo to use the Miis for their first smartphone app.