“Investors disappointed by early reviews and sales of the smartphone game ‘Super Mario Run’ sold off more Nintendo Co. shares on Monday, with some analysts expressing concern over the game’s payment model,” Takashi Mochizuki reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Nintendo shares closed 7.1% lower in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading on Monday, extending a losing streak to five days, during which the stock has fallen more than 16%.”
“‘Super Mario Run,’ featuring the Kyoto-based company’s most famous game character, was released last week for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other iOS devices,” Mochizuki reports. “The app, unveiled by Nintendo game creator Shigeru Miyamoto at an Apple event in September, is free to download but requires $9.99 to unlock all the features.”
“Motoi Okamoto, a former Nintendo game director, who said he has already finished the Mario smartphone game, said that it was well thought out but its payment structure wasn’t ideal. Players who see that the game is free to download may get an unpleasant surprise when asked to pay $9.99 after just a few levels, he said,” Mochizuki reports. “‘The game should have either asked players to pay when downloading or given more free content if they were to pursue a free-to-download model,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The pricing structure for this game has been known for months (free to download with a set price to unlock the rest of the content), so we’re unsure why there’s “surprise” in some quarters over it.
SEE ALSO:
Super Mario Run nets 10 million downloads and $4 million revenue on release day – December 19, 2016
Nintendo’s iOS-only ‘Super Mario Run’ notches three million downloads – December 16, 2016
Nintendo’s iOS-only ‘Super Mario Run’ arrives on Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch – December 15, 2016