According to a new report from Bloomberg, Nintendo is “retreating” from the mobile business it has invested in over the last few years. CEO Shuntaro Furukawa is said to have told Japanese media last month that the company is “not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market.”
Sources also claim that Nintendo is disappointed with the revenues coming from games like Mario Kart Tour and Fire Emblem Heroes, which were expected to be more profitable.
At the same time, though, it asked partner studios to be less aggressive on the microtransactions front as it wants to preserve its brands.
Also, the publisher isn’t happy with the overall quality of the games it has released thus far for mobile devices, and that is believed to be linked with the platform itself more than to the work of their developers.
“The company believes its franchises shine brightest when coupled with designed-by-Nintendo controllers, and it’s never been fully comfortable with the touchscreen-only interface of a phone,” Bloomberg adds.
It is reported that the Japanese platform owner is now more relaxed when it comes to other devices outside of its own.
Nintendo’s journey on mobile started at a time when Wii U had failed, and it wasn’t thought that Switch would have been so successful, but now that it is back on track again with home and handheld gaming sales it doesn’t feel like it is urged to force such move.
Analyst Serkan Toto added that “new smartphone games will come, but it’s very likely these will be just alibi releases to appease shareholders.”
That means we should see more mobile games from Nintendo soon, but not as many as it was believed when they started launching them.
