Nintendo doesn't want you pouring money into its mobile games, report says
Your wallet isn't just a coin block.
Nintendo isn't interested in plundering your wallet through its mobile games, a report said.
Nintendo reportedly wants to limit microtransactions within its mobile games, potentially limiting revenue to protect its image.
The Japanese company wants to use those games to get people interested in its traditional console games (like those on Switch) and avoid being slammed as greedy, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed company official.
This had a direct impact on Dragalia Lost, the action RPG it released last September. When players struggled to unlock rare characters in its in-game lotteries, Nintendo reportedly asked CyberAgent (developer Cygames' parent company) to tweak the game to stop players spending too much on extra tries.
"Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game," an unnamed CyberAgent official told the Journal. "If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more."
The game reportedly earned around $58.4 million in 2018, while strategy RPG Fire Emblem Heroes brought in $230 million.
Nintendo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, the company revealed that Mario Kart Tour -- the mobile entry in one of its major series -- would be delayed until this summer. We know that game will be "free-to-start," so it'll contain microtransactions of some sort.
It also revealed Wednesday that it's making a move into VR, with a Labo kit for Switch.
