In early 2016 Nintendo had finally made its first foray into the mobile gaming world with the release of Miitomo, a "social" minigame app, which would eventually find itself unsuccessful and shut down not too long after. Though it didn't make much money for the company, it paved the way for others, like Super Mario Run and Pokemon Go to become smash sensations and rake in significant amounts of profit. What may surprise some, though, is that out of the Nintendo developed (That means no Pokemon Go, as it's made by Niantic) apps, Fire Emblem Heroes took in the most money, making 300 million dollars in its first year. To compare it to Super Mario Run's $56 million, Fire Emblem Heroes made 5 times more at $295 million.

(Chart credit: SensorTower)
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Though the two games use differing payment styles--Super Mario run has a one type payment unlock, while Fire Emblem Heroes is a gacha that is geared more towards constantly spending money on items for character pulls, this data clearly shows that Nintendo has an audience that is more than willing to spend big money on mobile titles featuring its intellectual properties. Despite Nintendo claiming that they prefer the one time payment method, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, their next mobile title, ended up using time-based microtransactions, earning $20 million in its first two months on the Google Play and App Store. With the recently announced Mario Kart mobile game, it raises questions about what direction Nintendo will be taking their mobile gaming branch in the future.

Regardless, this is more than successful data, especially for a game franchise that was almost gone for good, due to waning popularity a mere 6 years ago. What are your opinions? Do you like Nintendo's mobile offerings? Do you play Fire Emblem Heroes, and have you given into the temptation to spend money on the app? Share your comments below!

Source: Sensortower

 

[BORTZ]

The Pokemon Company is made up of Nintendo, gamefreak, and creatures. They kind of sort of split stuff up between them, with all of them sharing ownership and profits in different ways. Niantic got a license for the game, and there is a lot of interaction between the two companies (you know how protective Nintendo is of its properties), but it is Niantic's game. Nintendo sees about 19% or so of the profits from Pokemon Go. Not sure if gamefreak or creatures sees any of that profit, though.

Ok, i was sure nintendo got SOME sort of kickback, but I wasn't sure how big. Thanks.

 

[sarkwalvein]

The Pokemon Company is made up of Nintendo, gamefreak, and creatures. They kind of sort of split stuff up between them, with all of them sharing ownership and profits in different ways. Niantic got a license for the game, and there is a lot of interaction between the two companies (you know how protective Nintendo is of its properties), but it is Niantic's game. Nintendo sees about 19% or so of the profits from Pokemon Go. Not sure if gamefreak or creatures sees any of that profit, though.

I wonder how long does this license last, and what will be the negotiation terms afterwards, because seriously, I still see lots of people walking straight into light posts daily while hunting for pokemons.

 

[osaka35]

I wonder how long does this license last, and what will be the negotiation terms afterwards, because seriously, I still see lots of people walking straight into light posts daily while hunting for pokemons.

i wonder the same thing. the game is finally feeling like an actual game at least. felt like it was still in beta up until 3 or 4 months ago.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

UGH, goddamn casuals are ruining gaming.

Except it's quite likely some amount of the money Nintendo is making from these mobile game ventures is going towards developing new hardware and/or first party titles.

People paying Nintendo for something they are enjoying can't really be all that bad for gaming.

I made a few posts, several years ago, where I predicted Nintendo's jump into the mobile market. I even claimed Pokemon Go was merely a market test from Nintendo to judge the mobile potential.

I was mocked and flamed vigorously.

Turns out I was correct.

People probably assumed you meant they'd be exclusively developing mobile games, which I don't foresee happening any time soon. Unless you specified otherwise, I can see why people would get angry at that type of comment, though.

It still pisses me off when people say Nintendo should go the way of Sega and start publishing on other platforms (even though they're doing great, I still see this!), when there's not much of a basis for such a statement other than people being salty that they've gotta buy Nintendo's consoles to experience Nintendo's best games.

 

[Deleted User]

I deleted this game from my phone because it's shit.

 

[WhiteMaze]

The Pokemon Company is made up of Nintendo, gamefreak, and creatures. They kind of sort of split stuff up between them, with all of them sharing ownership and profits in different ways. Niantic got a license for the game, and there is a lot of interaction between the two companies (you know how protective Nintendo is of its properties), but it is Niantic's game. Nintendo sees about 19% or so of the profits from Pokemon Go. Not sure if gamefreak or creatures sees any of that profit, though.

19%?

I wasn't aware their cut was so large. Last time I read about it, it hovered on the 13% mark.

But makes sense.

 

[osaka35]

19%?

I wasn't aware their cut was so large. Last time I read about it, it hovered on the 13% mark.

But makes sense.

the 19% figure came from nintendo officially saying how much money they got from Pokemon go compared to what niantic said they got. just some quick and dirty math, so it might be off a bit and that might have been shared with the rest of the pokemon company, not sure.

 

[WhiteMaze]

the 19% figure came from nintendo officially saying how much money they got from Pokemon go compared to what niantic said they got. just some quick and dirty math, so it might be off a bit and that might have been shared with the rest of the pokemon company, not sure.

Hmm.

Well in any case, let's just hope the upcoming Nintendo games aren't IAP riddled like everything else. Mario Run sucked tits and was another obvious little adventure by Nintendo to "test the waters". That's the only reason why it didn't sell that well.

Imagine a full blown Super Mario Bros on Android / IOS. Hell, imagine a Super Mario game like Mario 64/Galaxy/Odyssey on Android / IOS. Or a Pokemon Sun / Moon. Or a freaking Zelda.

I can imagine it already. Zelda: Breath of the Android and iMetroid.

Absolute cash making machines.

 

[GaveUpTomorrow]

I wonder how long does this license last, and what will be the negotiation terms afterwards, because seriously, I still see lots of people walking straight into light posts daily while hunting for pokemons.

Man, I saw so many people playing Pokemon Go the first month it came out. Easily dozens to hundreds every single day. I think I have seen maybe one or two people play the game in the past sixth months. Certainly no one running into poles. I thought it was dead, especially as everyone in my friend's circle dropped the game a couple months after release.

 

[RyanAnayaMc]

I've been playing Fire Emblem Heroes since launch, and raked in at least 60 5-star units all as a free-to-play user - quite lucky if you ask me. Out of the other mobile games I played, Unison League and Clash Royale, and some others I played really long ago, I went free to play. I haven't put my money in in-app purchases, as I would rather put my money towards better hardware and buying new games.

I honestly don't get why people really hate mobile games. They're not made to be equal to your full AAA PC and console titles (and even the ones that try to compete with PC and console have a hard time because there is a limit to how much horsepower you can extract from a phone). They aren't even made to be played like them. For free to download games, the company has to make money somehow, whether it be through microtransactions or ad revenue or a mix of both, and this seems to be why many people dislike mobile games. And this strategy works - that bar graph in the OP definitely seems to prove that.

Mario Kart for mobile:

Losing this race? Well you can always buy a Blue Shell for $4.99 or a bullet bill for $9.99!

Sad thing is, this might actually happen...

I don't think that will really happen because of how it would break the game. Even in Fire Emblem Heroes, in the Arena mode, you can't use the item that lets you revive your characters. I believe that Nintendo knows the line between "paying money gives you an edge" and "pay to win". In a mobile Mario Kart I feel like items you buy are vehicle parts and characters if anything. Items? No. I don't see that happening, especially at those prices.

 

[MasterJ360]

This. I warily installed Fate G/O, but realized that the gacha world is a harsh one, and that I'm best left sticking to Heroes' simple and relatively non-wallet-destructive nature.

This I agree 100% I tried to deal with Fate/GO's gacha for 2 months and I was done with it. Its pitiful that even player stamina is tied to quartz. Ppl say you can play/beat the game without powerful servants but you have to be kidding yourself to not want to play with favorable characters. I may have to try out Heroes I've heard nothing but good things about it

 

[DJPlace]

the only way i will spent money is if i have perfect iv's units (it sounds like pokemon sadly but it's a true fact) and damn it this does not work on blue stacks.

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the only way i will spent money is if i have perfect iv's units i want.(it sounds like pokemon sadly but it's a true fact) and damn it this does not work on blue stacks.

 

[Pluupy]

I deleted this game from my phone because it's shit.

Uh oh sounds like someone had trouble understanding the weapon triangle.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Nice, that's pretty good. I hope Nintendo keeps trying to get into the mobile phone game. I would love to see more of their stuff come to mobile. But not all, mind you.

Remakes and ports/VC would be welcome. I wouldn't mind seeing something like 2.5D Mario titles, top down Zelda games, etc. on mobile. Especially if they go the way Sega has with their ports and some games now being free with ads.

 

[WiiUBricker]

I have mixed feelings about this. While it’s awesome that Nintendo made so much profit (especially after the Wii U fiasco), one has to wonder if this is a precedent for a less-console-more-mobile-focused business strategy.

 

[Deleted User]

Uh oh sounds like someone had trouble understanding the weapon triangle.

Nope. I've played and completed every FE title released in the west (minus Shadows of Valentia which doesn't count because it has no weapon triangle).

 

[Ryccardo]

Again: on the lesser known franchise?

Is it that "less known"?
On a relative scale it obviously is, but from the point of view of someone not particularly interested, it feels like they pushed out more ("real") FE games in the past years than Game Freak's yearly shovelware...

 

[Subtle Demise]

Uh oh sounds like someone had trouble understanding the weapon triangle.

No it is shit really. I liked it for a little while, but it's a supremely watered down version of the real games in the series, and the lootbox system is actually pretty brutal. 3% chance of getting one of the featured characters, even less so if you factor in the color-choosing aspect. If the color of the character you're trying for isn't on there, then you just wasted 5 orbs for nothing.