Nintendo Plans To Continue Using Pay-Once Model For Its Mobile Games

“Super Mario” creator and Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that members of the video game industry should release games at fixed prices. Miyamoto also believes that doing so would create a more sustainable business model in the long run.

“We’re lucky to have such a giant market, so our thinking is, if we can deliver games at reasonable prices to as many people as possible, we will see big profits,” Miyamoto said at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference in Yokohama Japan, as per Bloomberg.

Miyamoto is directly addressing the free-to-play model that’s already popular in mobile games. This type of games are available to download and install for free, but users would have to pay real money for loot boxes and other in-game items. Developers and video game publishers believe that this allows games to have a longer lifespan and can generate greater profits.

Nintendo’s “Super Mario Run,” which was released for iOS devices almost two years ago, is available to play for free, but it will require players to pay $9.99 to have access to the full experience. Unfortunately, the “Super Mario Run” model hasn’t been a complete success, but Miyamoto said that Nintendo will continue using this pay-once model.

“I can’t say that our fixed-cost model has really been a success,” Miyamoto said. “But we’re going to continue pushing it forward until it becomes entrenched. That way everyone can develop games in a comfortable environment. By focusing on bringing games to the widest range of people possible, we can continue boosting our mobile game business.”

Nintendo’s current mobile games library consists of “Super Mario Run,” “Fire Emblem Heroes” and “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.” The Japanese gaming firm’s first ever mobile game, “Miitomo,” was released in 2016, but was officially killed off by Nintendo this past May.

Nintendo’s next mobile game is “Dragalia Lost” and it will be released for Android and iOS devices sometime later this year. “Dragalia Lost” is being developed alongside Japanese mobile game developer Cygames. Nintendo hasn’t revealed information on how customers will pay for the game yet, but Cygames is mostly known in Japan for using the “gacha” system, as pointed out by MacRumors.

Another mobile game that’s been announced by Nintendo is “Mario Kart Tour,” which is scheduled to be released during “the fiscal year ending in March 2019.”