In this episode of From Idea to Done, we take a peek under the hood of Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo's Mario Kart app. We compare it to previous iterations and discuss using nostalgia.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea, is the new Mario Kart app better than Mario Kart on the consoles for Nintendo? We have reviewed new fun game apps I have been excited about before, but today we’re going to take a little different approach and look at this from a business perspective.
J: Are you going to make me download an app that I will never use again this week?
E: No, I mostly want to talk about the idea of Nintendo getting into the mobile gaming, but first things first. I will review the app. I wasn’t a giant fan of mobile Mario Kart. I have a drawer in my desk that says in case of emergency. It has a Wii U in it with a copy of Mario Kart 8. We randomly host happy hours some Fridays. I rent out the conference room in our building, then we drink, and play Mario Kart on the projector. The game is just better, and it is a solid 4 years older than what Nintendo came out with last week. That isn’t the big takeaway with this though.
J: What was your big take away?
E: Nintendo should have been doing this YEARS ago. I watched a video of your boy Gary V. Nintendo has been missing out on tons of revenue over the past 10 years by not embracing mobile phone gaming.
J: I agree you have such an iconic brand in Nintendo. Every guy that is in their 30’s has to have some fond memories of one of their games. To not lean on nostalgia to some level feels like a crime and missed opportunity. I don’t buy anything gaming, but if you get me a mobile version of crystalis, paperboy, or battle toads I'd absolutely pay $5 for that.
E: I did a little research, I did the overall sales of the 3DS consoles last year + if you bought $200 in new games once you bought it. The overall number I got from that was $2.4billion. I then did a little digging. The mobile app Pokemon Go has now grossed over $3 billion according to wikipedia. I know the source is wikipedia, but those numbers are the interesting part to me.
J: Plus what’s the risk for Nintendo to put out another console, there is a lot invested in R&D as well as the marketing of it? Granted you get a larger wedge of the revenue, but there is more risk. On a platform can you roll out a test of river city ransom at a lower risk than producing it yourself.
E: This honestly makes me a little nervous for console gaming.I get what Nintendo is doing with these apps. To their credit compared to basically every other mobile game I have ever played, their controls are really good, the games look amazing, and they aren’t blatant cash grab games. I wish someone would just create a great mobile game that has an end, and doesn’t keep bugging me to buy things.
J: Yeah I’ve downloaded some games that are fun for the first few dozen or so times, then they get into pay to play versions. I even got hooked onto that silly Dr. Mario World game and now i’m pretty much over it.
E: I hope Nintendo finds a good balance of mobile games while still making quality consoles and better games. I would be sad if I could only play Zelda from my phone.
J: I wouldn’t disagree with that. I went out and bought the NES reboot last december so i can play with the original format on my bigger tv.
E: We have talked about the business strategy of Nintendo bringing some of their classic titles into the mix. My technical nerd question for you is could our nerd make the mobile version of Battle Toads I have been dreaming about?
J: Yes, we need to make Battle Toads. I don’t think that it will sit well for q4 profits for us, but hey… why not.
E: Finally! Also, that game was so freaking hard, that if we charged people a penny for 10 extra lives we would be billionaires soon.
J: Thank you for
