Nintendo opens pre-registration for its first mobile title, Miitomo

[Shawn Knight]

Nintendo is now accepting pre-registrations for its long-awaited debut mobile app, Miitomo.

To get started, you'll first need to create a Nintendo Account – the company's new multi-platform account system – by using an existing Nintendo Network ID, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account or by creating a standalone account.

There's not much that can be done with a Nintendo Account just yet although pre-registering for Miitomo will score you some Platinum Points (virtual money) that can be used when Nintendo's new reward service launches alongside Miitomo.

Nintendo provided details about Miitomo late last year, the first of five mobile titles we can expect between now and March 2017. Developed in collaboration with DeNA, Miitomo is more of a social networking app than a true game as it allows users to create Mii avatars which then interact with others in the Nintendo universe.

Miitomo will utilize the free-to-play model meaning it'll offer in-app purchases for things like outfits for Mii characters and so on.

Interestingly enough, Nintendo's first mobile app doesn't lean on iconic characters like Mario or Link. That may be a mistake according to some but in the same respect, Nintendo may simply be playing it safe on its first outing. If we don't see the usual cast of characters by the second or even the third title, then yeah, there's probably reason for concern.

Miitomo is expected to arrive next month for Android and iOS devices.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63841-nintendo-opens-pre-registration-first-mobile-title-miitomo.html

 

[umbala]

Booooooooring.

 

[oldikes]

"long awaited" might not be the the most apt description.

 

[Adhmuz]

Well this is not interesting at all, let alone "long awaited"... Haven't developers learned that this type of game is a very niche market, fine it'll get a lot of people to sign up simply because Nintendo, but when these people realize there's nothing to do but chat with each other they'll just go back to Facebook. Sony tried this, what a waste of bandwidth that was, and that actually look half decent for the time, not some crumby mobile app. Mark my words, this is going to flop, or the Nintendo fan boys will eat it up because they have nothing better to do, talking about lack of anything interesting from Nintendo lately, the most note worthy being yet another Mario tennis last November, Woot!...

 

[umbala]

What will likely happen is that this "game" will become popular with Japanese tweens and no one else on the planet will care. This will be like shooting yourself in the foot and then blaming it on the gun for Nintendo. They'll release this weird pseudo-game chatting app that no one outside of Japan will care about and then say to themselves "well mobile is not a good platform for us, let's try another gimmick and hope it sticks."

If they were smart, they would release a massively interactive RPG or strategy game based on their top tier franchise (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc) with micro transactions. Something akin to Clash of Clans or Heroes Charge. Something where you have to spend months and months to slowly build up your character or empire while interacting with your friends and spending small amounts of money along the way. Even a puzzle game (Candy Crush) or card game (Hearth Stone) would do well, if executed properly.

Of course knowing Nintendo they will not follow a tried and true formula that other companies are making boatloads of money on, but instead they'll probably try to "innovate" in the usual Nintendo fashion. (ie. another epic flop a la Wii U or VirtualBoy.)