Nintendo mobile app provides some Mii time
LOS ANGELES— For its inaugural lunge into the mobile gaming business, Nintendo isn’t relying on bouncy plumber Mario or sword-wielding hero Link. Instead, the Japanese gaming giant is looking to its legions of cutesy avatars.
Nintendo launched the Miitomo app in Japan on Thursday, featuring its customizable characters called Miis. The avatars can be created with the app using a smartphone camera and then outfitted with virtual fashions and quizzed by other Miis. Miitomo — “tomo” meaning “friend” in Japanese — is scheduled to come to other markets this year, but Nintendo has yet to announce a release date.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, believes Miitomo is app-ropriate as Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming because it’s a socially focused experience. It’s also less challenging than bringing Super Mario Bros. or the Legend of Zelda to touchscreen-only devices — not that Nintendo has ruled that out.
“You have your smartphone with you and you’re engaging with social media on it all the time, so it made sense for us to go down this path with Miis,” Fils-Aimé said. The app represents a big leap for a firm known for being fiercely protective of its intellectual properties. Nintendo rarely produces content for platforms other than its own, ranging from the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the Wii U console, which has lagged behind Sony’s Play-Station 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One in sales since its 2012 release.
Miitomo is the first of five Nintendo apps to be released in the next year in a partnership with Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA. It’s an opportunity for Nintendo to possibly reach billions of consumers. Despite the jump into mobile gaming, Fils-Aime said Nintendo remains committed to creating dedicated gaming experiences on consoles.
“The smartphone device space allows us to reach many more consumers with our intellectual property and to provide them with new and difference experiences, monetize those experiences and have it be an additive part of our business, not a replacement,” Fils-Aimé said.
Miitomo users can add real-world friends’ Miis to the app by finding them through social networking apps. The characters will then ask users questions and spark conversations while using the app.