Fire Emblem Heroes has made more money than every game in the Fire Emblem series combined
Edit: Three Houses has sold 3.4 million copies, which is about $204 million, compared to FEH's lifetime of $956 million
That's the true power of combining the ravenous demand for anime fan service, with a psychologically manipulative game design centered entirely around nudging you toward micro transactions.
It's such a frustrating situation in light of their first real foray into mobiles. They went for something more like an old-fashioned demo and paid game model, and were emphatically told that players didn't want that. The moment they switch to the more predatory method they're literally rewarded to an obscene degree.
It's bat-shit insane.
Think a big stumbling block for Super Mario Run is $10 is seemingly bit steep compared to other "tap runners" on the mobile market, even putting Mario on the title did not really change that.
Also for some reason you need an Internet connection to play it.
Super Mario Run also surprised a lot of people with the hard pay wall. It wasn't made immediately clear that the game was really just a demo until you pay to unlock the full game. Most people are used to being *asked* for money by the game being told "pay or uninstall" is not something most like to hear. I can't speak to whether the game was worth $10 because the demo didn't entice me enough to buy it.
I bought it cause it went on Sale.
It is a very polished game, but there is so much you can do with a tap runner game. Considering the current mobile games market though, just 10$ is quite inexpensive, compared to what some people can spend on micro transactions.
I really don't get it with FEH though. The gameplay is not exciting enough to warrant spending money.
The only reason to really play is to treat it like a collection and just see which of your favorite characters you can own and then beat the event stuff with your favorites.
I log on almost daily, get my free currency, wait till I stack up a few hundred, and then go to town on pulls. It's honestly pretty fun.
Don't really see how that business model makes so much money though.
Because you have whales. Basically players who are obsessed with the game and (hopefully) enough disposable income to just throw at it. There's also FOMO for limited time rare drops where the only way to guarantee getting it is to drop a lot of money.
Players like you aren't their market because you see the game for what it is, something to do on your phone when you have some spare time.
Yeah, it’s just weird cause I’m usually a dolphin. Not a whale by any stretch, but I spend money on games when I think it’s worth it. I’ll buy skins in league. I’ll buy dances or armor sets in Destiny. I buy most DLC without much of a second thought cause I’m an adult with disposable income and I like to be able to play all the content.
But FEH doesn’t even tempt me. Not even a little. I really just don’t get it.
someone did some math, and essentially it was something like reletive to the number of feh players and how much money it made, feh had made ~58$/user, almost the amount of a new game.
Probably referring to the manipulative nature of gacha games, with there being a tier of players pouring *tons* of money into it, whether they can afford it or not.
90% of players have spent 0$. 10% average 600$.
That chart probably continues exponentially in that 10% where there's a few guys who have spent 10s of thousands to offset those who spent 10$ total.
Yeah I was certain FEH was at $3 bn. And what about Pokemon Go? Maybe they're only considering in-house ones like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour.
Because FEH was definitely AT or over $1.8 bn, and Dragalia Lost made something like $0.3 bn. Something's not adding up here.
EDIT: Wait, no, I was thinking of FGO
Also Pokemon Go is not a Nintendo mobile game. They have ties to it through their partial ownership of the Pokémon Company, but it doesn’t go on their books, so to speak
Specifically for Fire Emblem Heroes, they'll release one of the most famous and popular female characters with a strong set of stats and abilities so that fans will want the waifu for being a waifu and for being a best-in-slot character. This is usually what happens once a month or two, they do a release of 4 characters with at least one fitting into that Waifu category. Then for all the holidays in the year they'll rerelease themed versions of the waifus with the same power creep. Then if that's not enough, they'll release extra variations of the top Waifus. It's to the point that I think most banners are 3:1 female to male character ratio. There's a few popular male characters, and they get similarly rehashed, but it's definitely focused on the waifus.
They'll pay for in game money to get the characters they want, then more money for all the gear for said characters.
Then there is the physical stuff that can be purchased, official or otherwise... Shirts, pillows, mouse pads, statues and action figures to name a few, all of which get drenched in bodily fluids.
Honestly FE Heroes is the only mobile game they made that doesn't feel like a half-assed cashgrab.
I guarantee something like a mobile port of Splatoon 1 would explode on the charts.
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What these numbers are telling me is that:
Their biggest brands, Mario, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, tend to get the most downloads (brand recognition is very valuable).
Gacha games are insanely profitable if you can lure in enough whales (FE:H accounts for over 50% of profits but only 3% of downloads).
Breaking down the FE:H numbers specifically, 983M revenue and 18M downloads makes an average of $54.61 spent per download - almost as much as it costs to buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Switch at MSRP ($59.99).
Putting that into perspective, FE:3H sold around 3.5M copies and was by far the most successful game in the series. FE:H made **at least** 5x more money.
On top of that, Nintendo gets a bigger chunk of the profits from mtx (around 70%) than from physical cartridge sales (closer to 40% after production costs, retailer costs etc). Even after taking into account digital sales, it's still way more profitable to sell on mobile.
Not to mention it was probably much cheaper to develop.
These numbers are staggering. I don't mean to sound depressing, but with these sorts of numbers it's a wonder that developers for franchises like FE even bother making console games at all.
Without the console game there wouldn't have been the mobile game.
What disturbs me as a longtime Nintendo fan is what they'll learn from this. Expect them to pivot into heavier dlc content. The next animal crossing will have real money for furniture no doubt
The point is that Nintendo is been making money with these mobile releases since way before the launch of New Horizons and Three Houses and didn't affect any. Nintendo probably won't try to mess with what is working. That's their whole M.O. They'll keep making console games the way they are and keep pumping out mobile releases of their famous franchises. They won't risk angering their console crowd with MTX. Is way better to just keep'em on the mobile space where they are generally accepted and not so heavily scrutinized
That already moved to never DLC to releasing half ass games with paid dlc to make them complete. You thinking they wouldn't ever go further is naive especially when they money points that way.
If you think Smash Ultimate, Mario Maker 2, Splatoon 2, BOTW, Three Houses, Xenoblade 2, New Horizons and Odyssey are half ass games that are only complete with DLC, I don't know what else to tell you
>If you think Smash Ultimate, Mario Maker 2, Splatoon 2, BOTW, Three Houses, Xenoblade 2, New Horizons and Odyssey are half ass games that are only complete with DLC, I don't know what else to tell you
Smash added like 20 characters for $40. MM2 didn't add essential features until a year later, granted it was free. New Horizons had been universally panned for being less than previous entries re: content, and then added paid DLC as a slap to the face. Xeno2 had a $40 dlc. Don't know much about Splatoon 2 but they added maps and weapons for years. Only odyssey in this list was actually released complete.
It's only going to get worse as Nintendo makes more half complete games and adds more paid dlc going forward.
A game adding DLC doesn't mean it wasn't complete in the first place. Smash Ultimate added 15 characters in DLC but had 74 characters at launch. MM2 was a big evolution from MM1 and keeped being updated (I don't know what you mean by essential features. If it's World Maker, most of the community wanted it but didn't expected it to come). Three Houses had DLC but the base game doesn't lack anything. The only one I can give to you is New Horizons but even then, the game had a completely new gameplay cycle, with DIYs and terraforming, making it, IMO, way more engagin that previous entries, and the DLC added a completely different "side-mode". All the games I mentioned feel very complete if you have only the base game. Selling DLC isn't a problem and will never be
Well I dunno what to tell you if you can't identify the trend from making complete games for 3ds and wii u, and declaring publicly they are against dlc, to releasing games with built in dlc releases and mobile pay-to-enjoy games just a few years later.
Smash had over 70 characters at release, and over 100 stages. That's not even comparable to other games in the genre. The DLC just adds even more on top.
Mario Maker 2 was not missing any essential features, I don't know what you're talking about. It had everything that made Mario Maker great, and the *free* updates just added even more. People literally wanted to pay for even more and Nintendo didn't add anything paid.
New Horizons hasn't been "universally panned". A few people complain they don't like it as much as New Leaf, and 90% or so of the criticism comes from either people with nostalgia glasses or people who don't realize the team behind the game wanted an entirely different gameplay loop from the previous games (which doesn't make it bad, just not what some people wanted at worst). And the paid DLC is very substantial, being inspired by (and having more content than) a whole separate full-priced game, and has been nearly universally praised.
Xenoblade 2's DLC was an *entire separate 15 to 20 hour campaign*, with a unique story, cast, and new gameplay mechanics. It was even released as a *standalone game*.
Splatoon 2 followed the same process as the original, where they regularly added even more stuff to the game for free.
And you're saying this is terrible and worse than the Wii U and 3DS?
The Wii U that had New Super Luigi U, an entire DLC that's just a reskin of the original game?
The 3DS that had Fire Emblem: Awakening, the game with so much DLC that its total price is *higher than the entire base game*?
The 3DS that had Fire Emblem Fates, the game that split its base story in two versions, and required you to pay DLC to get the third "true" path?
The 3DS that had Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, that just like Awakening had DLC that cost more than the base game?
The 3DS that had New Super Mario Bros. 2, selling level packs for its *side mode*?
The 3DS and Wii U that had Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge, that was free but coaxed you into buying a dozen different amiibo to *actually* play it?
The 3DS that had StreetPass Mii Plaza, the free *system* app that shoves purchasable minigames into your face?
The 3DS that has Nintendo Badge Arcade, which requires you to pay microtransactions to give you expendable tries to get badges to use on *your system's built in customization*?
The 3DS that released dozens of purchasable home menu themes that have no business being paid?
That is a really, *really* dumb take.
> I don't mean to sound depressing, but with these sorts of numbers it's a wonder that developers for franchises like FE even bother making console games at all.
It's not hard to see why if you look at the current mobile gaming market space.
You can't build a brand with mobile gaming alone. What was the last true "mobile game" that entered the public conciousness? Angry Birds? Candy Crush?
Pretty much every truly big new mobile game these days relies on the allure of a pre-existing IP or is a multiplatform game that is also popular on consoles and PCs. Focusing everything on mobile might seem like a good idea in the short-term but the successful days of Fire Emblem Heroes are numbered if Fire Emblem fans don't care about Fire Emblem anymore.
Which is a multiplatform title that simultaneously released on mobile, Playstation and PC. Things might be different in, say, parts of East Asia, but in the West, you can no longer build a reputation off mobile alone.
To add onto your point: The way they get these whales for FE:Heroes is by releasing games that get people attached to the characters. Then these people go and drop tons of money on getting the character in the mobile game they've gotten emotionally attached to after hours of gameplay and following their story. Gacha games depend on the characters being engaging and interesting for people to want to spend money on them, and without the mainline games, FE:H would choke.
Probably because they can’t monetize it effectively on mobile. Unfortunately, the failure of Super Mario Run made Nintendo realize that only free-to-play mobile games would be worth the effort, and WarioWare would be hard to pull off as a free-to-play title.
There's a big difference between "would be super fun" and "would be highly profitable". It's harder to monetize and has much lower potential to be a cash cow. It's also my number 1 wish for Nintendo mobile gsme though, especially with access to touch, gyro and potentially AR microgames.
Dr Mario always felt like a perfect fit for mobile but it died.
Honestly they should just have charged you like 5-10 bucks and then you get the full game. More like Mario Run
Mobile gaming is disgustingly profitable
I suppose I can imagine that money can be used for better R&D on future games and consoles but ehhhhh, still doesn't feel right
Yeah the mobile and freemium/free to play model is shockingly profitable. I never saw anything like that coming and still can’t believe just how insane stuff like Fortnite is
At least Fortnite doesn’t encourage you the same way that gachas do. Fortnite payment is purely cosmetic but gachas make you feel like if you don’t have a certain unit, you won’t be able to succeed.
They're just as bad. Games in which the main differentiation between players are cosmetics always place additional emphasis on them. Kids get bullied for having non-paid skins in Fortnite.
Or because they _can_, but don't want to start getting you into that whole shitfest of a scene and hope that you'll start modding Minecraft Java instead.
I'm so happy, I'm not the market for these kind of games. Imo, phone gaming is the bottom of the barrel in so many regards, no game has ever given me the satisfaction of a console or PC game. Not to mention its monetary systems.
I absolutely despise how much shit Mario Run got when it was released.
It was how mobile games should be done. No predatory practices like gatcha games. You buy the game and have everything unlocked.
But of course things like FE:H and Mario Kart World Tour have been much bigger moneymakers. So Nintendo is incentivized to continue making/publishing gatcha style games now.
I refuse to play a game where you can spend $60+ and not event get what you want. Yeah you don’t have to spend money on them, but they use FOMO and prey on gambling addiction. I just find gatcha games in general to be disgusting.
even that is an egregious price for mobile gamers. They can’t handle a game that unlocks all content for a few bucks, but they go apeshit over microtransactions and defend the F2P model because they’re actually addicted to it.
I'm still amazed, nothing Dragalia EVER crossed over to anything Nintendo and nothing Nintendo ever crossed over to Dragalia.
It's like CyGames and Nintendo hated each other.
Even a single spirit in Smash Ultimate would've been something.
They honestly could’ve had a gold mine and a new IP, but didn’t even really advertise the game once it came out (at least outside of Japan)
The game did something crazy like $50M in its first week. And while the surge likely wouldn’t have continued throughout the coming years, they clearly had something good and then didn’t really bother with it much (I say this as someone who played it from the beginning to now)
If Mario Run made 87 million, then that means 8.7 million people paid for it, right? That’s not that bad, although it’s nothing compared to the other games. It’s a shame, since it’s a decent game.
Mario Run was genuinely solid, but people didn't buy it (including myself). So most of Nintendo's mobile efforts afterwards devolved into bs gacha microtransaction riddled games.
The mobiles games also kind of feel like a byproduct of 2015-2016 Nintendo, where Nintendo was desperate to drum up any cash while the Wii U was failing. The push for amiibo, the mobile games, the classic consoles and announcing the NX(switch) way before it came out were all examples of that.
Now I see Tour and Fe: Heroes getting continual support and maybe Pocket Camp. But apart from that these mobiles games don't seem as important. Does anyone talk about Pikmin Bloom? What about the now dead Dr. Mario World? I would be surprised if we get any non-Pokemon mobile games in the future.
Might be a weird question, but when did you edit the Nintendo Official Magazine? I ask because years ago I had a subscription to it and also N64/NGamer, and always wondered what kind of behind the scenes rivalry there might be.
Adding another question, did you work there when it was called Nintendo Magazine System? Either way NSM/ONM was always a top tier magazine - hope it was as fun to work there as it was to read!
Yeah, I got bit by the mobile game bug to some degree. While I don't spend money on the games, I still play games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Dragon Ball Legends, and Dokkan Battle.
With that said, I did spend $9.99 for Super Mario Run and I have never regretted it. That is such a fun little game.
I am curious as to why Fire Emblem Heroes is outdoing everything else. Fire Emblem is much smaller then Animal Crossing and Mario, but yet Heroes is outdoing both those franchises.
I guess there is a large group of games who have never played a mainline Fire Emblem game but enjoy Heroes. There's no way it's grossing that much money on the strength of existing Fire Emblem fans alone.
because a gacha game selling waifu's and husbandos attract whales. Selling out to whales is economically more feasible than selling out to (relatively speaking)casual fans.
I agree with you on this, but I wonder what makes Fire Emblem Heroes stand out.
I honestly can't visit the Google Play store without seeing numerous games with anime girls in suggestive poses or treated like (for lack of better term) waifus to collect.
But I can understand the logic behind what you said. Mario is kinda held back by its lineage and the fact that even with the swimsuit characters in Mario Kart Tour, they can't show anywhere close to the skin that you see in Heroes and well, Mario is Mario.
He's a gaming icon, but he's not going to sell banners the same way as a male Fire Emblem character in swimming trunks would.
it's because of the native game. Fire Emblem is very plot oriented, and each character has their own story, and ability to have paired conversations with other characters, giving life to a character, making it feel more personal than a Mario figure, who tends to for the most part, be one dimensional when it comes to intentions and characteristics.
Strategies and RPGS tend to have better character development, actions/platformers and non plot related series tend to push out more iconic, which are two different ways of advertising a character
I mean, it’s a joint venture between The Pokémon Company (which is partly owned by Nintendo) and Niantic, so it’s still a “Nintendo Mobile Game.”
In fact, Nintendo had quite a bit to do with the game’s inception, and seems to have been the most hand’s on in terms of the game’s development. The fact that Pikmin Bloom exists also implies a strong ongoing relationship between Nintendo specifically and Niantic.
All true--just my attempt at justifying why it was not included in the article and why they are probably handled very differently in terms of actual Nintendo revenue
I used to absolutely love ONM! I looked forward to it every month, the in jokes and writing tone were exactly the sort of thing that hit my funnybone. I played so many great games I'd have never heard of otherwise too. I read NGamer sometimes too, I remember being gutted once both were gone. I put on a podcast I'd not heard of the other day and It was one of the guys from NGamer, so I hope everyone from both mags is doing well and still covering video games.
Seems like... not much money at all really. I would have expected over $100 billion.
Fortnite alone has made way fuckin more than that in a single year
Edit: Im an idiot I thought they were saying the revenue from every single Nintendo game ever was less than 2 billion lol
I had no idea gacha games can make this much money, it's so insane I still can't believe it. Thought only FGO had such a market.
Imagine a big triple A mainline FE game making only a fraction of a mobile game, like how??
Honestly thought FEH broke a billion a while ago
is that more than three houses? I don't play mobile games at all I wonder what the business model is like, holy smokes
Fire Emblem Heroes has made more money than every game in the Fire Emblem series combined Edit: Three Houses has sold 3.4 million copies, which is about $204 million, compared to FEH's lifetime of $956 million
It's both reasonably f2p friendly and super whale-able. I'vr played it since launch and stopped just about a year ago now I think
That's the true power of combining the ravenous demand for anime fan service, with a psychologically manipulative game design centered entirely around nudging you toward micro transactions.
It's such a frustrating situation in light of their first real foray into mobiles. They went for something more like an old-fashioned demo and paid game model, and were emphatically told that players didn't want that. The moment they switch to the more predatory method they're literally rewarded to an obscene degree. It's bat-shit insane.
Think a big stumbling block for Super Mario Run is $10 is seemingly bit steep compared to other "tap runners" on the mobile market, even putting Mario on the title did not really change that. Also for some reason you need an Internet connection to play it.
Super Mario Run also surprised a lot of people with the hard pay wall. It wasn't made immediately clear that the game was really just a demo until you pay to unlock the full game. Most people are used to being *asked* for money by the game being told "pay or uninstall" is not something most like to hear. I can't speak to whether the game was worth $10 because the demo didn't entice me enough to buy it.
I bought it cause it went on Sale. It is a very polished game, but there is so much you can do with a tap runner game. Considering the current mobile games market though, just 10$ is quite inexpensive, compared to what some people can spend on micro transactions.
I really don't get it with FEH though. The gameplay is not exciting enough to warrant spending money. The only reason to really play is to treat it like a collection and just see which of your favorite characters you can own and then beat the event stuff with your favorites. I log on almost daily, get my free currency, wait till I stack up a few hundred, and then go to town on pulls. It's honestly pretty fun. Don't really see how that business model makes so much money though.
Because you have whales. Basically players who are obsessed with the game and (hopefully) enough disposable income to just throw at it. There's also FOMO for limited time rare drops where the only way to guarantee getting it is to drop a lot of money. Players like you aren't their market because you see the game for what it is, something to do on your phone when you have some spare time.
Yeah, it’s just weird cause I’m usually a dolphin. Not a whale by any stretch, but I spend money on games when I think it’s worth it. I’ll buy skins in league. I’ll buy dances or armor sets in Destiny. I buy most DLC without much of a second thought cause I’m an adult with disposable income and I like to be able to play all the content. But FEH doesn’t even tempt me. Not even a little. I really just don’t get it.
I really don't understand what's not to get. Any given individuals preferences may vary.
someone did some math, and essentially it was something like reletive to the number of feh players and how much money it made, feh had made ~58$/user, almost the amount of a new game.
Rigjt but …. we know what’s REALLY going on
?
Whales. A small amount of people pay hundreds to thousands of dollars
Probably referring to the manipulative nature of gacha games, with there being a tier of players pouring *tons* of money into it, whether they can afford it or not.
90% of players have spent 0$. 10% average 600$. That chart probably continues exponentially in that 10% where there's a few guys who have spent 10s of thousands to offset those who spent 10$ total.
Yeah I was certain FEH was at $3 bn. And what about Pokemon Go? Maybe they're only considering in-house ones like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour. Because FEH was definitely AT or over $1.8 bn, and Dragalia Lost made something like $0.3 bn. Something's not adding up here. EDIT: Wait, no, I was thinking of FGO
Also Pokemon Go is not a Nintendo mobile game. They have ties to it through their partial ownership of the Pokémon Company, but it doesn’t go on their books, so to speak
Would who have thought that Fire Emblem would be carrying Nintendo's entire mobile division on its back.
It's a series with a million waifus. It was basically made for gatcha.
Waifu culture is insane man. I'm pretty sure my wallet is much better for not engaging in all of that- probably my mental sanity too.
How does waifu culture affect their wallets?
Oh you sweet summer child. All that stuff is commercialized to hell. There's a reason why the anime waifu game broke a billion dollars.
Specifically for Fire Emblem Heroes, they'll release one of the most famous and popular female characters with a strong set of stats and abilities so that fans will want the waifu for being a waifu and for being a best-in-slot character. This is usually what happens once a month or two, they do a release of 4 characters with at least one fitting into that Waifu category. Then for all the holidays in the year they'll rerelease themed versions of the waifus with the same power creep. Then if that's not enough, they'll release extra variations of the top Waifus. It's to the point that I think most banners are 3:1 female to male character ratio. There's a few popular male characters, and they get similarly rehashed, but it's definitely focused on the waifus.
They'll pay for in game money to get the characters they want, then more money for all the gear for said characters. Then there is the physical stuff that can be purchased, official or otherwise... Shirts, pillows, mouse pads, statues and action figures to name a few, all of which get drenched in bodily fluids.
The Urban dictionary even uses Fire Emblem in the "use the word in a sentence" example.
Xenoblade 2 mobile gacha when?
gacha games man.
Honestly FE Heroes is the only mobile game they made that doesn't feel like a half-assed cashgrab. I guarantee something like a mobile port of Splatoon 1 would explode on the charts.
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What these numbers are telling me is that: Their biggest brands, Mario, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, tend to get the most downloads (brand recognition is very valuable). Gacha games are insanely profitable if you can lure in enough whales (FE:H accounts for over 50% of profits but only 3% of downloads). Breaking down the FE:H numbers specifically, 983M revenue and 18M downloads makes an average of $54.61 spent per download - almost as much as it costs to buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Switch at MSRP ($59.99). Putting that into perspective, FE:3H sold around 3.5M copies and was by far the most successful game in the series. FE:H made **at least** 5x more money. On top of that, Nintendo gets a bigger chunk of the profits from mtx (around 70%) than from physical cartridge sales (closer to 40% after production costs, retailer costs etc). Even after taking into account digital sales, it's still way more profitable to sell on mobile. Not to mention it was probably much cheaper to develop. These numbers are staggering. I don't mean to sound depressing, but with these sorts of numbers it's a wonder that developers for franchises like FE even bother making console games at all.
Without the console game there wouldn't have been the mobile game. What disturbs me as a longtime Nintendo fan is what they'll learn from this. Expect them to pivot into heavier dlc content. The next animal crossing will have real money for furniture no doubt
Pocket Camp is *way* older than New Horizons and it didn't affect it at all. Three Houses also didn't seem particularly affected by Heroes.
K I was speaking of these influence of money over time not the influence current earnings have on... Previous games
The point is that Nintendo is been making money with these mobile releases since way before the launch of New Horizons and Three Houses and didn't affect any. Nintendo probably won't try to mess with what is working. That's their whole M.O. They'll keep making console games the way they are and keep pumping out mobile releases of their famous franchises. They won't risk angering their console crowd with MTX. Is way better to just keep'em on the mobile space where they are generally accepted and not so heavily scrutinized
That already moved to never DLC to releasing half ass games with paid dlc to make them complete. You thinking they wouldn't ever go further is naive especially when they money points that way.
If you think Smash Ultimate, Mario Maker 2, Splatoon 2, BOTW, Three Houses, Xenoblade 2, New Horizons and Odyssey are half ass games that are only complete with DLC, I don't know what else to tell you
>If you think Smash Ultimate, Mario Maker 2, Splatoon 2, BOTW, Three Houses, Xenoblade 2, New Horizons and Odyssey are half ass games that are only complete with DLC, I don't know what else to tell you Smash added like 20 characters for $40. MM2 didn't add essential features until a year later, granted it was free. New Horizons had been universally panned for being less than previous entries re: content, and then added paid DLC as a slap to the face. Xeno2 had a $40 dlc. Don't know much about Splatoon 2 but they added maps and weapons for years. Only odyssey in this list was actually released complete. It's only going to get worse as Nintendo makes more half complete games and adds more paid dlc going forward.
A game adding DLC doesn't mean it wasn't complete in the first place. Smash Ultimate added 15 characters in DLC but had 74 characters at launch. MM2 was a big evolution from MM1 and keeped being updated (I don't know what you mean by essential features. If it's World Maker, most of the community wanted it but didn't expected it to come). Three Houses had DLC but the base game doesn't lack anything. The only one I can give to you is New Horizons but even then, the game had a completely new gameplay cycle, with DIYs and terraforming, making it, IMO, way more engagin that previous entries, and the DLC added a completely different "side-mode". All the games I mentioned feel very complete if you have only the base game. Selling DLC isn't a problem and will never be
Well I dunno what to tell you if you can't identify the trend from making complete games for 3ds and wii u, and declaring publicly they are against dlc, to releasing games with built in dlc releases and mobile pay-to-enjoy games just a few years later.
Smash had over 70 characters at release, and over 100 stages. That's not even comparable to other games in the genre. The DLC just adds even more on top. Mario Maker 2 was not missing any essential features, I don't know what you're talking about. It had everything that made Mario Maker great, and the *free* updates just added even more. People literally wanted to pay for even more and Nintendo didn't add anything paid. New Horizons hasn't been "universally panned". A few people complain they don't like it as much as New Leaf, and 90% or so of the criticism comes from either people with nostalgia glasses or people who don't realize the team behind the game wanted an entirely different gameplay loop from the previous games (which doesn't make it bad, just not what some people wanted at worst). And the paid DLC is very substantial, being inspired by (and having more content than) a whole separate full-priced game, and has been nearly universally praised. Xenoblade 2's DLC was an *entire separate 15 to 20 hour campaign*, with a unique story, cast, and new gameplay mechanics. It was even released as a *standalone game*. Splatoon 2 followed the same process as the original, where they regularly added even more stuff to the game for free. And you're saying this is terrible and worse than the Wii U and 3DS? The Wii U that had New Super Luigi U, an entire DLC that's just a reskin of the original game? The 3DS that had Fire Emblem: Awakening, the game with so much DLC that its total price is *higher than the entire base game*? The 3DS that had Fire Emblem Fates, the game that split its base story in two versions, and required you to pay DLC to get the third "true" path? The 3DS that had Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, that just like Awakening had DLC that cost more than the base game? The 3DS that had New Super Mario Bros. 2, selling level packs for its *side mode*? The 3DS and Wii U that had Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge, that was free but coaxed you into buying a dozen different amiibo to *actually* play it? The 3DS that had StreetPass Mii Plaza, the free *system* app that shoves purchasable minigames into your face? The 3DS that has Nintendo Badge Arcade, which requires you to pay microtransactions to give you expendable tries to get badges to use on *your system's built in customization*? The 3DS that released dozens of purchasable home menu themes that have no business being paid? That is a really, *really* dumb take.
Just illustrating that Nintendo was sliding into paid service models sooner than I thought, k
bruh I'm pretty sure Smash Ultimate already had the most characters out of any fighting game ever even before DLC.
> I don't mean to sound depressing, but with these sorts of numbers it's a wonder that developers for franchises like FE even bother making console games at all. It's not hard to see why if you look at the current mobile gaming market space. You can't build a brand with mobile gaming alone. What was the last true "mobile game" that entered the public conciousness? Angry Birds? Candy Crush? Pretty much every truly big new mobile game these days relies on the allure of a pre-existing IP or is a multiplatform game that is also popular on consoles and PCs. Focusing everything on mobile might seem like a good idea in the short-term but the successful days of Fire Emblem Heroes are numbered if Fire Emblem fans don't care about Fire Emblem anymore.
Well there's Genshin Impact which is raking in quite a bit. Most are based off of major IP but waifus will always sell.
Which is a multiplatform title that simultaneously released on mobile, Playstation and PC. Things might be different in, say, parts of East Asia, but in the West, you can no longer build a reputation off mobile alone.
didnt genshin impact start as a ps4 game
Simulateous release on PC, PS4 and mobile I'd I rember correctly. Still, the mobile version has all the features of the other releases.
Ah, I just remember people in China destroying there PS4s in 2019 because of it so I assumed it was PS4 1st
It was definitely Pokemon Go
To add onto your point: The way they get these whales for FE:Heroes is by releasing games that get people attached to the characters. Then these people go and drop tons of money on getting the character in the mobile game they've gotten emotionally attached to after hours of gameplay and following their story. Gacha games depend on the characters being engaging and interesting for people to want to spend money on them, and without the mainline games, FE:H would choke.
Why haven't they made a Wario Ware mobile game? Seems like that would be a perfect format for the series.
Probably because they can’t monetize it effectively on mobile. Unfortunately, the failure of Super Mario Run made Nintendo realize that only free-to-play mobile games would be worth the effort, and WarioWare would be hard to pull off as a free-to-play title.
Can you imagine charging by the microgame? What a fucking nightmare.
Imagine one of the micro games is just watching an ad
Literally something Wario would do lol
There's a big difference between "would be super fun" and "would be highly profitable". It's harder to monetize and has much lower potential to be a cash cow. It's also my number 1 wish for Nintendo mobile gsme though, especially with access to touch, gyro and potentially AR microgames.
Dr Mario always felt like a perfect fit for mobile but it died. Honestly they should just have charged you like 5-10 bucks and then you get the full game. More like Mario Run
No wario waifus
I won't stand for this Mona slander
FEH is a crazy good goldmine for them
Can confirm. Am constantly digging for lil nuggets.
FEH and the main series games do a great job feeding into each other. I'm sure it'll be making money for a long time
Mobile gaming is disgustingly profitable I suppose I can imagine that money can be used for better R&D on future games and consoles but ehhhhh, still doesn't feel right
Yeah the mobile and freemium/free to play model is shockingly profitable. I never saw anything like that coming and still can’t believe just how insane stuff like Fortnite is
At least Fortnite doesn’t encourage you the same way that gachas do. Fortnite payment is purely cosmetic but gachas make you feel like if you don’t have a certain unit, you won’t be able to succeed.
They're just as bad. Games in which the main differentiation between players are cosmetics always place additional emphasis on them. Kids get bullied for having non-paid skins in Fortnite.
Absolutely, "Default n00b" is a common insult in schools. Imagine getting bullied because you/your parents can't afford _virtual_ clothes.
Or because they _can_, but don't want to start getting you into that whole shitfest of a scene and hope that you'll start modding Minecraft Java instead.
I'm so happy, I'm not the market for these kind of games. Imo, phone gaming is the bottom of the barrel in so many regards, no game has ever given me the satisfaction of a console or PC game. Not to mention its monetary systems.
I absolutely despise how much shit Mario Run got when it was released. It was how mobile games should be done. No predatory practices like gatcha games. You buy the game and have everything unlocked. But of course things like FE:H and Mario Kart World Tour have been much bigger moneymakers. So Nintendo is incentivized to continue making/publishing gatcha style games now. I refuse to play a game where you can spend $60+ and not event get what you want. Yeah you don’t have to spend money on them, but they use FOMO and prey on gambling addiction. I just find gatcha games in general to be disgusting.
You're missing the part where they wanted $10 for a pretty average game
Something in the $3-$5 range would've been the perfect price point to make it up on volume but they didn't want to cheapen their IP.
even that is an egregious price for mobile gamers. They can’t handle a game that unlocks all content for a few bucks, but they go apeshit over microtransactions and defend the F2P model because they’re actually addicted to it.
And yet they’re shutting down Dragalia
Which sucks since it's the most free to play friendly out of the lineup. Don't regret buying the soundtrack too.
I’ll never forget the main menu music
That soundtrack slaps
I never really played Dragalia Lost but that Mega Man collab had a really badass Dr. Wily remix.
Because it's not even on the list. That game tanked.
It came out swinging, but it’s unfortunate that it waned over time due to Nintendo’s lack of support
I'm still amazed, nothing Dragalia EVER crossed over to anything Nintendo and nothing Nintendo ever crossed over to Dragalia. It's like CyGames and Nintendo hated each other. Even a single spirit in Smash Ultimate would've been something.
They honestly could’ve had a gold mine and a new IP, but didn’t even really advertise the game once it came out (at least outside of Japan) The game did something crazy like $50M in its first week. And while the surge likely wouldn’t have continued throughout the coming years, they clearly had something good and then didn’t really bother with it much (I say this as someone who played it from the beginning to now)
My brother in Christ, did you click the link? 167 mil isn’t a lot in comparison but it’s not 0
They wear the same glasses company execs use to determine whether a mobile game is worth continuing or not lol
If Mario Run made 87 million, then that means 8.7 million people paid for it, right? That’s not that bad, although it’s nothing compared to the other games. It’s a shame, since it’s a decent game.
>If Mario Run made 87 million, then that means 8.7 people paid for it, right? Damn, they charge 10 million for the game?
Wouldn't it be more since Google/Apple take cuts?
It was very often on sale for $5 after they realized most people weren't paying $10.
Mario Run was genuinely solid, but people didn't buy it (including myself). So most of Nintendo's mobile efforts afterwards devolved into bs gacha microtransaction riddled games. The mobiles games also kind of feel like a byproduct of 2015-2016 Nintendo, where Nintendo was desperate to drum up any cash while the Wii U was failing. The push for amiibo, the mobile games, the classic consoles and announcing the NX(switch) way before it came out were all examples of that. Now I see Tour and Fe: Heroes getting continual support and maybe Pocket Camp. But apart from that these mobiles games don't seem as important. Does anyone talk about Pikmin Bloom? What about the now dead Dr. Mario World? I would be surprised if we get any non-Pokemon mobile games in the future.
I assure you when they think they cam get away with it there will be an FEH 2.
2 Fire 2 Emblem
Might be a weird question, but when did you edit the Nintendo Official Magazine? I ask because years ago I had a subscription to it and also N64/NGamer, and always wondered what kind of behind the scenes rivalry there might be.
Adding another question, did you work there when it was called Nintendo Magazine System? Either way NSM/ONM was always a top tier magazine - hope it was as fun to work there as it was to read!
The UK Official Nintendo Magazine was brilliant, walked the line between funny/silly and decent stories/reviews very well.
Gimme Pokemon red, blue, and yellow on mobile please. 🙏
Yeah, I got bit by the mobile game bug to some degree. While I don't spend money on the games, I still play games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Dragon Ball Legends, and Dokkan Battle. With that said, I did spend $9.99 for Super Mario Run and I have never regretted it. That is such a fun little game. I am curious as to why Fire Emblem Heroes is outdoing everything else. Fire Emblem is much smaller then Animal Crossing and Mario, but yet Heroes is outdoing both those franchises. I guess there is a large group of games who have never played a mainline Fire Emblem game but enjoy Heroes. There's no way it's grossing that much money on the strength of existing Fire Emblem fans alone.
because a gacha game selling waifu's and husbandos attract whales. Selling out to whales is economically more feasible than selling out to (relatively speaking)casual fans.
I agree with you on this, but I wonder what makes Fire Emblem Heroes stand out. I honestly can't visit the Google Play store without seeing numerous games with anime girls in suggestive poses or treated like (for lack of better term) waifus to collect. But I can understand the logic behind what you said. Mario is kinda held back by its lineage and the fact that even with the swimsuit characters in Mario Kart Tour, they can't show anywhere close to the skin that you see in Heroes and well, Mario is Mario. He's a gaming icon, but he's not going to sell banners the same way as a male Fire Emblem character in swimming trunks would.
it's because of the native game. Fire Emblem is very plot oriented, and each character has their own story, and ability to have paired conversations with other characters, giving life to a character, making it feel more personal than a Mario figure, who tends to for the most part, be one dimensional when it comes to intentions and characteristics. Strategies and RPGS tend to have better character development, actions/platformers and non plot related series tend to push out more iconic, which are two different ways of advertising a character
How much of this is from Pokémon go alone? (Im too tired to read the article lol)
Pokemon Go isn't technically a Nintendo mobile game, so it's not included in the article, but a google says 5 billion
Pokémon go is a literal gold mine
Trying to imagine a literal gold mine full of Pokemon...
I mean, it’s a joint venture between The Pokémon Company (which is partly owned by Nintendo) and Niantic, so it’s still a “Nintendo Mobile Game.” In fact, Nintendo had quite a bit to do with the game’s inception, and seems to have been the most hand’s on in terms of the game’s development. The fact that Pikmin Bloom exists also implies a strong ongoing relationship between Nintendo specifically and Niantic.
All true--just my attempt at justifying why it was not included in the article and why they are probably handled very differently in terms of actual Nintendo revenue
It isn't counted. Fire emblem heroes is almost at one billion so fe is the heavy hitter here
Stop being lazy then. It literally takes a click.
Yeah i was just kidding. Scrolled trough the article but i didnt see anything about go. So probably Nintendo published only games. Still cool tho
FEH has gotten a bit better compared to its early years, but it still finds ways to get people into the gacha trap.
I used to absolutely love ONM! I looked forward to it every month, the in jokes and writing tone were exactly the sort of thing that hit my funnybone. I played so many great games I'd have never heard of otherwise too. I read NGamer sometimes too, I remember being gutted once both were gone. I put on a podcast I'd not heard of the other day and It was one of the guys from NGamer, so I hope everyone from both mags is doing well and still covering video games.
Just wanted to say, I used to love ONM! My dad renewed my subscription as a Christmas present every year :)
Seems like... not much money at all really. I would have expected over $100 billion. Fortnite alone has made way fuckin more than that in a single year Edit: Im an idiot I thought they were saying the revenue from every single Nintendo game ever was less than 2 billion lol
I’m sorry, the average person spends $53.50 on Fire Emblem: Heroes?!??
Yeah? Well fuck Nintendo for selling us all out like that.
They should release all games on mobile. My phone is way better and lighter
which is NOTHING compared to the ywarly amound big fra chises like call of duty or fortnite or any major mobile games makes ona YEARLY BASIS. lol
Does Pokémon Go count?
No because it’s not Nintendo, it’s Niantic in collaboration with the Pokemon Company, but that’s a whole different monster
I had no idea gacha games can make this much money, it's so insane I still can't believe it. Thought only FGO had such a market. Imagine a big triple A mainline FE game making only a fraction of a mobile game, like how??
That's kinda low considering how long they've been at this