Which game lover doesn’t remember the theme song to Mario, and his unsuccessful attempts to rescue the princess? It’s simply a right of passage in the gaming world!
Yahoo! reported Nintendo’s intention to enter the smartphone gaming world, and its first app title will be the free-to-play Miitomo, at an announcement in Tokyo on Thursday.
Miitomo is a communication application that helps friends share fun personal facts and interests. Players will create their own video game characters or avatars, called Miis that they can use to engage with friends to learn more about each other and find common interests.
The game itself is free, but it will include in-app purchases. Even though the game had been expected to be released before year’s end, Nintendo said Thursday that Miitomo is scheduled for global release in March.
Miitomo is being built in partnership with DeNA, a Japan-based game developer that publishes a range of free-to-play mobile games, including the popular Star Wars: Galactic Defense. The game will be the first of five from the partnership through March 2017. Miitomo will be available for both Apple iOS-based and Google Android-based mobile devices.
Nintendo also announced a new membership program called My Nintendo which will connect users across different devices; including PCs, smartphones and Nintendo’s consoles. It will also enable cloud saving, so players can transfer game data from console to smartphone without issues. The service will launch alongside Miitomo in 2016.
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