Variety recently held an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in order to discuss the upcoming “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Within this interview, Miyamoto revealed some information regarding the upcoming future of the Mario franchise and how the one direction it will not be moving towards is mobile games.
Mario’s past with mobile games has not been a fruitless endeavor, as back in 2016, Super Mario Run was released and grossed $60 million in its first year, which was then topped by their next mobile game Mario Kart Tour, which has grossed $300 million since its release. While these are not bad numbers, by comparison, Mario Kart 8 alone has generated $3 billion and is still rising. As far as profitability goes, mobile apps are not as profitable as some of their other ventures, which has caused Miyamoto to believe “Mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games.”
This is also not to say that these mobile games did not have their merits for other reasons. Both of these mobile games are free and draw profit from the micro-transactions which has worked well for some games such as Candy Crush Saga, that have grossed over $1 billion over its lifespan according to businessofapps, however, there are more benefits to these mobile games beyond that. In Miyamoto’s words:
“Having Mario games as mobile apps expands the doorway for far more audience to experience the game, and also expands the Mario gaming experience, where you only need your thumb on one hand.”
This line of thought is consistent with the way that the franchise has continued over the last year with the release of Super Nintendo World in February of this year and The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming out on April 5. Though mobile games are no longer a priority on Nintendo’s mind, fans eagerly anticipate the next mainline release from the Mario franchise, which has remained a mystery, further brewed by Miyamoto’s own statement regarding the issue: “All I can say is please stay tuned for future Nintendo Directs.”