Miyamoto: Future Mario games won’t be primarily for smartphones

Future Super Mario games won’t be coming primarily to smartphones, says Shigeru Miyamoto, the character’s creator. Nintendo tried it with smartphone games featuring Mario, but it didn’t work as well as on proprietary platforms.

Miyamoto does not immediately rule out Mario games for smartphones, but he says in an interview with Variety that future Mario games won’t come primarily to smartphones. Three Mario games have been released for smartphones so far: Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour and Dr. Mario World. The latter disappeared from download stores two years after its release. Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour are still around and brought Nintendo sales, but much less than versions for the Switch.

According to Miyamoto, Mario games come into their own better on Nintendo’s own consoles. “Nintendo’s strategy is an integrated gaming experience of hardware and software. The intuitive controls are part of that experience. When we explored the possibility of Mario games for smartphones, which is a generic device, it was difficult to determine what the game should be. are.”

Where Run and Tour started with the limited input of a smartphone screen, that is no longer the start of a Mario game development. “We try to define first what the gameplay is and what the method is, and then we get to what device that fits.”