Super Mario Run Was A Disappointment for Nintendo

Super Mario Run just launched for the Android, so now just about every mobile device has a chance to tap their way through the mushroom kingdom in the shoes of a portly Italian plumber. While the game has been enjoying some great success, with 78 million downloads, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima revealed in an interview with Nikkei that the company is dissatisfied with the game and that it “did not meet our expectations.”

This is largely because while the game costs $9.99, it could be downloaded for free, and the first four to five levels could be played without paying a dime. It’s a fair model, but unfortunately, in a world where most apps don’t survive on people’s phones for longer than a month, it didn’t do much to keep retention. Since this January, only 5% of downloads ultimately lead to a purchase, which is far from a windfall. Nintendo isn’t expecting the Android to result in any significant increase in sales.

Despite the failure of the app to satisfy the big N, Nintendo senior officials made it clear in the Nikki interview that they’re not willing to give up on the Super Mario Run pay model just yet. They called Fire Emblem Heroes an “outlier”, and they “prefer the Super Mario Run model.”

It’s worth noting that Fire Emblem Heroes actually leads sales rankings since its debut… so either people thought it was a stronger game, worth more of their money (those heroes aren’t going to ship themselves, after all!) or the pay up front model is simply better in these cases. I could see it going either way, but I think we can all agree that it’s better for the consumer if you get a chance to play the game before you buy it… even if Nintendo was a bit too generous with the number of levels given away for free.