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Nintendo Prefers Super Mario Run’s Pricing Model over Fire Emblem: Heroes’

This despite Fire Emblem being more profitable.

super mario run

Nintendo finally released mobile title Super Mario Run to Android devices this week after launching on iOS in December 2016. And despite the game having not been as much of a financial success to date as fellow mobile release Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo apparently prefers Mario’s pricing model over Fire Emblem’s more aggressive one.

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“Heroes’ is an outlier,” a senior company official told Nikkei. “We honestly prefer the Super Mario Run model.”

That model involves the first few levels of Super Mario Run being playable for free with the remaining levels being locked behind a $9.99 paywall. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima admitted that the game’s earnings “did not meet our expectations.”

Meanwhile, Fire Emblem Heroes, with its traditional mobile freemium pricing structure requiring players to buy additional playable characters has been very profitable. Nikkei believes that the concern with this model is that its overuse could become harmful to the incredible value of the characters in Nintendo’s various IPs.

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About the author

Nick Santangelo

Nick has been a gamer since the 8-bit days and has been reporting on the games industry since 2011. Don't interrupt him while he's questing through an RPG or desperately clinging to hope against all reason that his Philly sports teams will win something.

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