Why Nintendo Picked ‘Animal Crossing’ Over ‘Mario’ For Mobile

Nintendo announced last week that it will bring favorite titles such as Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem to its latest smartphone game lineup. Although this is welcome news to fans of those games, there were questions raised about the choices.

In order to enlighten its supporters, Tatsumi Kimishima, president of the company scheduled a special Q & A session on April 28 after giving the company's latest earnings report.

He explained that Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem were chosen to "follow Miitomo from the viewpoint of increasing the diverse types of consumers interested in Nintendo, and widening opportunities for gameplay."

He also added that the Animal Crossing series was being played by a broad range of gamers and consumers including children and women. Kimishima believes that the chances of these customers enjoying this game are higher.

As for Fire Emblem, Kimishima said the company selected this game not so much for its wide audience but for its die-hard fans who were faithful in sticking to the series for a long time.

"We selected two titles of different categories and IP to reach as many consumers as possible," Kimishima explained. "We are not limiting the IP for the titles that will follow these two. We will continue to prepare titles using IP that many consumers are familiar with," he added.

However, Nintendo did not offer any juicy details as to what can be expected from these two games.

Although the company said these mobile versions will be "more accessible" and will have "great value," there are still some gray areas that consumers really want to know as far as their gameplays or how these two mobile games will tie up with their forthcoming game console versions.

Nevertheless, consumers around the world will appreciate the efforts of Nintendo in resorting to this strategy to keep them hooked into these two well-loved games.

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