Many predicted that Mario would never come to mobile, but it was clear that with this announcement, Nintendo would slowly bring all of their popular franchises to mobile. Since, we’ve seen a Fire Emblem game that probably didn’t have the same mass appeal as Super Mario Run (purely due to the fact that Fire Emblem doesn’t have the same nostalgic pull).
So, what’s next for Nintendo and mobile devices?
Apple’s annual iPhone event is taking place later today (well, tomorrow at 3am AEST to be precise) and I think we could very well see the reveal of their next major franchise coming to iPhone/iPad.
Nintendo has also announced a Nintendo direct for Thursday morning which is 45 minutes in length. Seems like the perfect time to follow up their brief time on the Apple stage with an in-depth look at whatever they possibly announce.
Whilst we know that Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda are both coming to mobile at some point, it makes most sense for Animal Crossing to be the one that could potentially be revealed. It was supposed to release before March of this year until Nintendo delayed it citing that it would now come before March of 2018.
Animal Crossing is a major franchise. The last iteration on Nintendo 3DS sold over 12 million copies worldwide, so to have this properly revealed alongside the iPhone X would be huge (especially in Asian countries who absolutely live for Animal Crossing).
Zelda on the other hand would probably be even bigger, but we know that Animal Crossing is going to release first (unless something has changed). I could potentially see them giving a sneak peak of Zelda (or at least an official announcement/logo) if someone from Nintendo were to take the stage, but I don’t think we’d be selling a whole lot.
It’s an exciting time in the tech space. Just based on what we know about the iPhone X, it’s set to be the first time that iPhone has a significant change up in more than a few years. Seems like no better time than now to lift the lid on what Nintendo have to release on the mobile front.
