Nintendo President on Monetization of Mobile Games - 'All depends on IP'

The topic of how Nintendo plans to monetize games in the mobile market came up during the 77th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Kimishima-san provided some very interesting data points in his response.

Asif Khan

June 29, 2017 1:00 PM

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Nintendo’s 77th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders was held today in Kyoto, Japan. The companies board of directors and key personnel were all in attendance to provide an update about the company's progress. There was not a whole lot of new financial information provided during the first part of the meeting, but some very interesting topics came up during the question and answer session. 

Shareholder: Monetization differs depending on the game. What methods are you progressing forward with?

Kimishima: We have 3 games (Miitomo/FE/Mario) with different methods. Looking into what works. Mario had 150 million downloads but under 10% monetize. This isn’t bad. Mario downloaded in 200+ countries, some where it’s not officially available. Fire Emblem download count is 1/10th of Mario but has more revenue. All depends on IP; each has different needs.

Super Mario Run's $10 price tag to unlock the full game was panned by many gamers. Despite an amazing 150 million downloads across Android and iOS for Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes has been able to pull in more revenue with only one tenth the install base of Mario's first mobile game. Kimishima-san says that monetization in mobile games is being looked at on a case by case basis. It will be interesting to see which direction Nintendo will chose to go in for the monetization of their upcoming Zelda and Animal Crossing mobile games.

Please check out Nintendo Everything's Details from Nintendo’s 77th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders for some more great coverage. 

Thanks to NintendoEverything.com for the great transcription of the meeting!

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.