Nintendo’s Living Legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, took to the stage at the 2018 Japanese Computer Entertainment Developers Conference to deliver a talk on what he sees as a problem in games today. That problem is over-charging customers with in-software purchases, something that of course is a great source of both profits for some games, and aggressive divides between publishers and consumers in other cases.
Miyamoto believes that it’s more important in the long run to offer single-cost software, but also points to subscription models are more beneficial than the all or nothing approach of free to play and microtransaction-based content. It’s worth noting that Nintendo has been releasing mobile content lately, and much of it falls exactly under this umbrella, including the very successful Fire Emblem Heroes . It’s also worth noting that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has been criticized for its premium practices.
Miyamoto speaks to that, noting that fixed-cost content like Super Mario Run wasn’t a smashing success. But he says Nintendo hopes to “entrench” the strategy, making it more viable long-term. He also speaks to subscription models helping to foster the perceived value of content, that “value” perception being the thing publishers need to fight for.
Source: Bloomberg