In an interview to discuss the upcoming “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with Variety, Shigeru Miyamoto said that the Super Mario video game franchise will not be available on iOS. The Nintendo fellow, video game designer, and “Mario’s mom” explained that the company has decided “mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games.”
Nintendo released the first Super Mario Run mobile game on iOS and Android in 2016, it was followed by Mario Kart Tour and Dr. Mario World. Except for Dr. Mario which was pulled two years after launch, the other two Mario games on iOS were comparatively successful.
iOS and Android devices will not be Super Mario games
Without giving an explicit reason for pulling the Super Mario video game franchise from mobile, iOS and Android, Miyamoto shared that the company’s core strategy is a hardware and software-integrated gaming experience which includes intuitive controls and the mobile as a platform delivers gameplay that requires only thumbs on each hand.
He further explained that at Nintendo, the development of a Mario game starts with defining “what is the gameplay, what is the method, and then define what devices” it would go on, platform is not the main focus.
As Super Mario games will not be returning to mobile, this mean Nintendo does not view iOS and Android devices are no longer feasible and profitable platforms, like 3D platformers.
Referencing the innovation of the Super Mario Maker series and Super Mario Odyssey, which Miyamoto called “the ultimate evolution of a Mario adventure game on a typical 3D platformer,” the Nintendo exec laid out how the company begins to develop a Mario game: “We try to define what is the gameplay, what is the method, and then define what devices we go on.”
Having said that other mobile games developed by Nintendo will be available on iOS and Android app stores like Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Pikmin Bloom.
