One of Apple’s surprise announcements during their September event was that Nintendo was coming in a big way with Super Mario Run. The game, which features Mario running forward and is designed to be played just by tapping the screen with a finger, didn’t have a release date, or a price. Now it’s got both, and the price might be a bit of sticker shock for those used to free-to-play games.
Nintendo has announced the game will be arriving on iOS December 15th, and it’ll have three modes you can try out. But if you want the full experience, you’ll be paying $9.99 for it. As apps go, that’s a premium price, but if anybody can get away with charging ten bucks for a game on iOS, it’s Nintendo, especially for a new Mario game.
It also fits with the company’s larger strategy. It’s easy to forget Nintendo sees itself as a toy company and that games like Super Mario Run or Pokémon Go are little more than experiments as it works out just how it fits in a mobile future. Don’t forget that Nintendo is, to some degree, taking on Apple and Google with their new console the Switch, and is exploring mobile in general. If Super Mario Run can make Apple fans open their wallets, then we might be seeing a very different Nintendo sooner rather than later.
(via The Verge)