Nintendo's first smartphone effort, Miitomo, was an initial wildfire until it was bogged down by waning interest and lack of compelling gameplay — it was a social-focused app at its core, using Miis and not much else.
The sophomore attempt to claim significant foothold in the smartphone gaming market saw the company's most iconic mascot in an endless runner. Super Mario Run, released late last year, was a staggering success.
Apart from Mario, Nintendo promised that other franchises will also arrive on mobile gaming platforms, namely, Fire Emblem, its tactical-strategy IP, and Animal Crossing, a wildly popular simulation game in which players become neighbors with anthropomorphic animals and perform neighborly things.
Animal Crossing For Mobile Delayed
The mobile iteration of Fire Emblem, called Fire Emblem: Heroes, comes out Thursday. No news for the other game has come out, however — at least until now. The untitled iteration of Animal Crossing was pegged for a release sometime this financial year, but Nintendo now says it won't arrive until the next one, which places its potential release window between April 2017 and March 2018.
Nintendo's Q3 Earnings
Nintendo announced the delay alongside its Q3 earnings, in which it disclosed a profit of 64.7 billion yen, about $569 million, out of the 174.3 billion yen in revenue, or about $1.5 billion. The biggest sales force was Pokémon Sun and Moon, newest mainline Pokémon entries released in November, moving nearly 15 million copies. Super Mario Maker, a Wii U port for the 3DS, sold more than 2 million copies, as per a report by The Verge.
Super Mario Run was undeniably a significant smartphone inroad for the company, although it's laconic about how many people actually paid for the full price of the title.
Wii U Sales
The Wii U, now discontinued, sold just 760,000 units — by fat the worst holiday season in the console's history, which rings its death knell even louder. Nintendo's earnings results for the next quarter should be interesting, given the imminent release of the Switch, its new Wii U successor that acts as both as a home system and a handheld.
Nintendo Switch
It's looking good for the Switch so far. Preorders opened after Nintendo's Switch keynote, and allocated units for the initial release took only a short while before selling out. Nintendo could have a winning console here, and it basically can't afford not to, given the Wii U's disappointing market stint.
Unlike the Wii U, whose perceptually similar premise from the Wii made it hard for consumers to divorce the former from the latter, the Switch has a clear, concise, and easily understandable concept: It's a home console when rested on its dock, but take it out and in your hands is a handheld — one that's a supremely steep hike from where the 3DS's capabilities plateau, if the Switch is indeed considered its successor, which isn't the case.
It'll be interesting how Nintendo's profits will be sculpted with the release of the Switch on March 3, and the company's ongoing efforts to increasingly up the ante on entering the smartphone market.
