As Nintendo keeps launching new properties onto smartphones, the company has taken different strategies in regards to each app`s payment model, including free-to-play (Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes) and pay-once-and-play (Super Mario Run). According to a senior official at the company, Nintendo actually `prefers` the Super Mario Run model over Fire Emblem Heroes, despite the more lucrative future that Fire Emblem Heroes` in-app purchases have in store for Nintendo (via Nikkei).
According to Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, Super Mario Run`s revenue `did not meet` the company`s expectations. Ahead of the game`s release, it was reported that Nintendo was eyeing a pay-once model so that parents could download Super Mario Run for their kids without the added anxiety of in-app purchases appearing later in their iTunes purchase history.
It appears that the gaming company still intends for most of its future apps to follow in Super Mario Run`s footsteps and not those of Fire Emblem Heroes, with a senior company official referring to Heroes as `an outlier` in the grand scheme of Nintendo`s mobile strategy.
Yet [Super Mario Run] was less of a moneymaker for Nintendo than might have been expected, due to the pay-once-and-play model. Revenue from the game `did not meet our expectations,` Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said.
Even so, Nintendo has no intention of switching focus to freemium games. ``Heroes` is an outlier,` a senior company official said. `We honestly prefer the `Super Mario Run` model.` The company is believed to care more about expanding the reach of its intellectual properties to a wider audience and `aims to do more with its smartphone games than make money.` Another goal for Nintendo is to mine the potential synergy future apps could have with the new Switch console, where players pick up the app to get hooked, and are convinced to further explore -- and spend more money -- on a larger version of the game.
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