With no sign of Mario, Nintendo’s first mobile game looks ‘disappointing’

More than seven months after Nintendo and DeNA announced a partnership that fans around the world hoped would bring Mario and company to the small screen, Nintendo this morning announced its first smartphone game, Miitomo. But right off the bat, there are problems. Not only is the game devoid of the mustachioed plumber synonymous with Nintendo, but it’s being delayed until March 2016. The market reaction has not been kind.

The announcement came during an investor meeting that began at 10:00 am local time in Tokyo. According to Serkan Toto, a Japanese gaming industry consultant, the word “delay” apparently began circulating among analysts present at the closed-door meeting at 10:30 am, at which point the stock prices for both companies began a sharp nosedive.

“The word ‘delay’ is like a red, flaming flag for investors,” Serkan tells Tech in Asia. “It’s even worse than the fact that Miitomo looks so underwhelming.”

He notes that Nintendo stock was up almost 2 percent before the announcement. At present, it is down nearly 10 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. DeNA has taken an even harder hit, down more than 16 percent at the time of writing.

Screen capture from Google Finance. Blue is Nintendo and orange is DeNA.

“Miitomo is disappointing,” Serkan says. “It would have been so easy – just cooperate with DeNA to create a free-to-play mobile game with Mario or other popular IP and set yourself up for a new, potentially enormous revenue stream.”

“But it’s not a ‘game,’ and at this point it’s not even confirmed it’s one of the five games Nintendo is planning to roll out through March 2017,” he adds.

Indeed, Miitomo feels more like an awkward avatar-based messenger than a proper gaming experience. Users customize a Mii character, popularized by the original Wii console, and answer a variety of questions about themselves. The user’s Mii will then communicate with other Miis on their behalf, promoting interaction for those who are uncomfortable talking about themselves. It all sounds a bit odd – and very Japanese (this is, after all, where Facebook initially struggled because some users preferred using an image of a cartoon character instead of their own face).

Miitomo will be free-to-play and offer in-app purchases.

Despite the stock dive, it’s not all doom and gloom for Nintendo – the firm revealed its first operating profit in five years yesterday. And here’s some more food for thought, if even one of those upcoming titles hits the turtle shell on the head:

Nintendo jumps into mobile gaming with Miitomo https://t.co/xtMrpDDIwe pic.twitter.com/CFnG1EZF1p