'Super Mario Run' for iPhone reaps 40 million downloads amidst fears from investors
Reviews of "Super Mario Run" are apparently causing turmoil with Nintendo stockholders, with the stock seeing about a 10 percent drop since release, despite the company releasing a statement praising the game's performance in less than a week of release.
The high for the company's stock on the year was on July 19 in the height of the "Pok?mon Go" craze, with the stock hitting 31,770 yen per share. Days afterward, the stock lost half of its short-term gains after Nintendo reminded investors about the revenue sharing required for Pok?mon Go.
The stock price drop has eradicated nearly all of the gains the stock has made since the low-key reveal of the company's forthcoming console, the Nintendo Switch.
The two titles, "Super Mario Run" and "Pok?mon Go," have different revenue models. "Super Mario Run" is entirely Nintendo's property and has a one-time $9.99 purchase which unlocks the game world, and gives the purchaser a minor boost in in-game currency. Revenue from "Pok?mon Go" is shared by many parties, and reliant on in-game expendable purchases.
Nintendo hasn't made a statement on the percentage of players who are buying the upgrade to the full game. Analysts peg the number at between 5 and 9 percent, a bit higher than other games with a single in-app purchase instead of consumable buys.
"Pricing was designed to reassure parents that they would be charged just once, not multiple times," said Nintendo about the pricing model for "Super Mario Run." "We hope to maximize the number of people who interact with our characters on mobile, to bridge them to console gaming and to create synergies."
Nintendo claims to have no plans to expand the game at this time.
"Super Mario Run" was revealed during the iPhone 7 debut event in September. Nintendo also promises titles relating to the "Fire Emblem" adventure series, and the "Animal Crossing" town builder on mobile in March 2017.
"Super Mario Run" is free to download from the App Store, though unlocking the full game requires a $9.99 purchase. The title is a 204-megabyte download to start, that rapidly swells as progress is made through the game.
Stock impact
On close of business on Dec. 14, Nintendo stock ended at 27,975 yen per share. At the end of the trading day on Dec. 20, the share price had fallen to 24,815 yen per share, with the Nintendo press release trumpeting the 40 million download figure not buoying the share price appreciably on Wednesday."Pricing was designed to reassure parents that they would be charged just once, not multiple times." - Nintendo, on "Super Mario Run" unlock.
The high for the company's stock on the year was on July 19 in the height of the "Pok?mon Go" craze, with the stock hitting 31,770 yen per share. Days afterward, the stock lost half of its short-term gains after Nintendo reminded investors about the revenue sharing required for Pok?mon Go.
The stock price drop has eradicated nearly all of the gains the stock has made since the low-key reveal of the company's forthcoming console, the Nintendo Switch.
App Store performance
As of Wednesday morning, "Super Mario Run" is sitting on top of Apple's Top Free Apps, and Top Grossing Apps leaderboards. "Pok?mon Go" remains in the top 10 and is sitting in eighth place.
The two titles, "Super Mario Run" and "Pok?mon Go," have different revenue models. "Super Mario Run" is entirely Nintendo's property and has a one-time $9.99 purchase which unlocks the game world, and gives the purchaser a minor boost in in-game currency. Revenue from "Pok?mon Go" is shared by many parties, and reliant on in-game expendable purchases.
Nintendo hasn't made a statement on the percentage of players who are buying the upgrade to the full game. Analysts peg the number at between 5 and 9 percent, a bit higher than other games with a single in-app purchase instead of consumable buys.
"Pricing was designed to reassure parents that they would be charged just once, not multiple times," said Nintendo about the pricing model for "Super Mario Run." "We hope to maximize the number of people who interact with our characters on mobile, to bridge them to console gaming and to create synergies."
Nintendo claims to have no plans to expand the game at this time.
"Super Mario Run" was revealed during the iPhone 7 debut event in September. Nintendo also promises titles relating to the "Fire Emblem" adventure series, and the "Animal Crossing" town builder on mobile in March 2017.
"Super Mario Run" is free to download from the App Store, though unlocking the full game requires a $9.99 purchase. The title is a 204-megabyte download to start, that rapidly swells as progress is made through the game.
Comments
Even worse they just announced no new content. Ever. Free or paid. Makes the $9.99 seem even more of a ripoff
Also: Stock Market = irrational lunacy.
I passed on Diablo for the same reason. Too often the only time I have to play games I'm on a plane or somewhere without wifi internet.
... although i'm not sure if the game-play would be as nice without physical controller buttons.
So you do want to know what they're doing with the other hand?
We'll see if the numbers are sustained. Sure, they have shit tons of downloads right now, but 4-6 months from now what will they be? Seems to be a common issue with App Store Apps. They're a hit at first, and then decline, sometimes significantly. I'm not saying this will happen, I'll play the wait and see game.
I was about to say, here we go another person from the entitlement generations who think everything should be free they should keep getting more and more without paying, but then I saw your username and I would think you came from the generation which understand you have to have to pay to get something.
When you buy a new car and they top the tank off before you leave the lot do you also expect to keep going back and get more free gas.
Your greater good isn't mine and frankly if Nintendo doesn't change it's going to go out of business after how the WiiU tanked. There are only 10M WiiUs compared to 20M Nintendo GameCubes and 100M Wiis. It was a harder flop than the GameCube.
If the Nintendo Switch flops as hard Nintendo will have no choice but to go the Sega route.
I'm ambivalent about what has been said about the Switch. I'd rather have an iPad than carry that around.
I have to agree. The most plausible reason I heard for the internet copy protection feature was due to the Android world. Mario Run is due out on Android soon and pirating games seem to be a huge issue. With the most recent release of iOS jail breaking is almost complete gone and no real way to pirate a game or app on iOS today. But still a ramped issue on Android so the game companies are setting up the same experience for both eco systems. Blame Google for the issue since they done very little to protect the revenue streams of their developers which forces developers to do things which are not consumer friendly.
Other than a plane, you can always create a hotspot for the ipad to use your cellphones data connection. My kids connect their laptops to my cellphone while we drive for this reason.
I have no problem paying for games or other apps I like. The issue to me is more the statement that there will never be any new content. There's a reason this game has such a relatively low rating for the most popular game. Never adding new content will not improve the game or that rating