Call me cynical, but I still don't believe that you can clone a endless runner game, slap Mario on it, and expect it to be successful on mobile. I get that it's a big deal that Nintendo and Super Mario are coming to mobile, but as soon as the novelty of the news is off I think they'll face a pretty major reality check.
> Call me cynical, but I still don't believe that you can clone a endless runner game, slap Mario on it, and expect it to be successful on mobile. Nintendo has a history of taking existing genres they don't have much experience in, making it their own, and releasing really compelling games. Pikmin for RTSes, Splatoon for FPSes, etc. I don't think they're going to half-ass it.
Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
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Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the Marvel franchise is quite fatigued atm...
I tend to think franchise fatigue is less of a concern with movies because movies are short-enough in length that you don't feel like you just finished (or haven't finished) the predecessor when the sequel comes out. I'd worry more about the Marvel TV products than the movies, or if the movies fail as stand-alones (like Ultron).
Ultron was the seventh highest grossing film in history ($1.4b gross; budget of $316 million) and the second highest grossing Marvel movie (after The Avengers).
I'd love a failure like that.
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#113There's a common fallacy that happens frequently when Silicon Valley technologists start talking about Nintendo, and that is the idea that "their hardware can never compete with the ubiquity of mobile platforms, they should just become a software company and port their games to iOS and Android!" The success of Pokémon Go, and this new Mario game as well, is showing that Nintendo is taking a different strategy: they'r…
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#114I've seen a lot of people saying that Nintendo were kinda dumb for taking so long to capitalize on the incredible brand recognition of mario and pokemon, and looking at the money pokemon go is making, I don't disagree. But I think that the reason a lot of non-nerds cared so much about pokemon go is that pokemon still meant the same thing to them as it did 10 years ago. So the reason that those brands are still such a…
"But I think that the reason a lot of non-nerds cared so much about pokemon go is that pokemon still meant the same thing to them as it did 10 years ago. " My kids were aware of Pokemon before the GO from the cartoon series but were not terribly enthusiastic about them. They went like nuts for the Pokemon GO game. Anecdotally, it's not just the brand, but the game itself which people feel enticing.
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#115Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, that's sort of disingenuous to say, though. They made playing cards for more than half of that. Ditching your business model of 70 years to going into an emerging technology market (video games in the 80's) isn't really conservative.
They're still making playing cards. And it took them 18 years (1956-1974) of experiments with new ventures (including a cab company, and love hotels, and assorted toy ranges) before they started selling video games. Another 5 or so before they got successful. Donkey Kong came out in 1981 and finally made them lots of money from it. So ~25 years from they realised the playing card business didn't have room for further…
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
First endless runner anywhere! Invented the genre.
I think Aztec Challenge on Commodore 64 might have a strong claim here.
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Call me cynical, but I still don't believe that you can clone a endless runner game, slap Mario on it, and expect it to be successful on mobile. Nintendo has a history of taking existing genres they don't have much experience in, making it their own, and releasing really compelling games. Pikmin for RTSes, Splatoon for FPSes, etc. I don't think they're going to half-ass it.
Those 2 aren't really successful franchises.
Sounds quite successful to me, though of course it's still only a bit over a year old so who knows if it'll last.
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tend to think franchise fatigue is less of a concern with movies because movies are short-enough in length that you don't feel like you just finished (or haven't finished) the predecessor when the sequel comes out. I'd worry more about the Marvel TV products than the movies, or if the movies fail as stand-alones (like Ultron).
> or if the movies fail as stand-alones (like Ultron). Ultron was the seventh highest grossing film in history ($1.4b gross; budget of $316 million) and the second highest grossing Marvel movie (after The Avengers). I'd love a failure like that.
Re: Nintendo Soars as Super Mario Mobile Game Comes to the iPhone
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're still making playing cards. And it took them 18 years (1956-1974) of experiments with new ventures (including a cab company, and love hotels, and assorted toy ranges) before they started selling video games. Another 5 or so before they got successful. Donkey Kong came out in 1981 and finally made them lots of money from it. So ~25 years from they realised the playing card business didn't have room for further…
Are people buying the cards, though? How much of the business is dedicated to the cards? I'd reckon it could fall into an ocean and much of the world wouldn't notice. I don't call that success.
But the point was to illustrate that Nintendo is in fact a quite conservative company - they've held on to what they started doing well over a century ago, despite having switched focus to video games 35 years ago, after spending 25 years researching and developing new businesses to find the right new direction.
I'd argue that assuming their play card sales are now a tiny proportion of revenue, that just underscores this point - I can't imagine they need it, but it's part of their legacy.