It hasn’t been a week yet since Nintendo’s Super Mario Run came out on the iOS store but it already looks like it’s going to be a big failure for Nintendo – financially speaking. Released a mere ten day before Christmas, Mario Run was supposed to be Nintendo’s next big hit. It was supposed to ride on the same popularity that Pokémon Go helped garner. Mario Run was supposed to bring to player’s mobile devices that same nostalgic euphoria that they got when they played as the fictional Italian character on their Nintendo console. However, it turns out that over the past five days things have gone quite differently for Nintendo.
According to TechCrunch, Nintendo’s stock has dropped quite significantly over the course of Mario Run’s release. In the past five days since the game was launched on the iOS store, Nintendo’s stock have plummeted more than 16 percent – today the company saw a 7.1 percent shares drop, marking it the fifth consecutive day that share prices have fallen for Nintendo. Analysts looking closely at the figures told the Wall Street Journal that they believe negative reviews after the game’s release have impacted stock. Despite an intense hype from the media and fans alike, which in fact spiked Nintendo’s shares before the game’s release, Mario Run’s poor reviews have pointed out numerous flaws with the game, and thus investors have responded.
Day one of the game’s release was quite big, however, as Nintendo saw Super Mario Run make a splash on the iOS store when it was downloaded by over 2.8 million players, which beat out Pokémon Go’s day one figures. But unfortunately for Nintendo, the hype for the game didn’t translate to the actual game itself. Whether it was the $9.99 price you have to pay to play the full game after having play a small demo or the frustrating always-on internet connection requirement, players felt dissatisfied with the game.
Nintendo’s classic Mario seems to run fine though. They’ve done a pretty good job with translating the side-scrolling world on to a mobile screen. But the game working fine just doesn’t cut it. With Pokémon Go being a game changer (no pun intended), Nintendo needed Mario Run to be different while also being the same game that every Nintendo fan loves.
Super Mario Run marked the first time that the iconic character was put on mobile devices. It’s currently available now on iOS and it will come out on the Android later in 2017.