Nintendo isn’t having difficulties. The company’s mobile offerings are smaller games with smaller budgets developed by smaller teams. Switch is just more of a priority. More importantly, Nintendo is right where it said it wanted to be. It released Miitomo and Super Mario Run in 2016 then released Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in 2017. Nintendo has previously stated that it wants to release two to three mobile games a year.
I suppose we’ll see how 2018 shakes out as far as that strategy is concerned. Only Mario Kart Tour is officially announced, and it may not release this year. Who knows how far along Zelda is though it seems more appropriate to unveil at E3.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/43838/nintendo-planning-more-than-three-smartphone-titles-in-calendar-2017In separate Japanese newspaper interviews, CEO Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed the plan to release at least four mobile titles in calendar 2017 and onward. An interview with the Kyoto Shimbun paper originally reported "2-3 per year", but a separate interview with the Sankei newspaper quoted Kimishima as saying there would be "more than three" internally developed Nintendo mobile titles per year.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41381/nintendo-mobile-game-miitomo-launching-march-2016-alongside-new-account-serviceNintendo's first mobile game, called Miitomo, will launch this fiscal year, as opposed to the calendar year.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/43395/nintendo-only-launching-four-mobile-games-in-this-fiscal-yearNintendo is scaling back their mobile plans slightly for the fiscal year.
In an interview with Time Magazine, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed Nintendo's mobile strategy. A follow-up email from Miyamoto confirmed that a combination of development time and "market conditions" would mean only four mobile titles would release by March 2017. The four titles would be Miitomo, Super Mario Run and the unnamed Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem projects.
Clearly their plans are in flux. Doesn't help that they keep changing from fiscal year to calendar year and back again. No matter how you slice it, they'v never released more than two.
FY 2016: 1 Miitomo
FY 2017: 2 Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes
FY 2018: 1 Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Calendar Year 2016: 2 Miitomo, Super Mario Run
CY 2017: 2 Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
CY 2018: TBD
Titles that have been announced with vague or no release date: Zelda and Mario Kart Tour.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rumor/44618/new-zelda-pokemon-trading-card-titles-possibly-coming-to-mobileI had forgotten that Zelda was never officially announced by Nintendo. It was thought to be the unnamed title by Miyamoto that was delayed/fell by the wayside. I wonder if the reaction to BOTW contributed to that. As in, "We really can't mess this up now!"
But more important than anything else in this post:
December 24, 2016
Posted by Lemonade:
I wonder if they would do a Mario Kart for phones
Proof that Hideki Konno lurks the NWR forums looking for ideas!