Nintendo Announces Next Two Mobile Apps

So! Miitomo is out, and getting some pretty good reviews from customers. As conversation apps go, it might not be as robust as Skype or Line, but at least it's not as creepy as Tinder or Club Penguins. It's fun, it's harmless, but it'd be silly to assume Nintendo's plans for the mobile sphere begins and ends with a silly little Mii-focused distraction.

And indeed, they have no intention of stopping there: as they just announced two more projects for mobile phones--but while Miitomo was designed for casual, non-gaming fun, these next two, set to be launched this fall, will have a much greater emphasis on actual gaming.

From the press release:

Nintendo’s Next Mobile Apps: Building on the positive consumer reaction to Miitomo, Nintendo announced that its next two mobile apps would be based on the familiar and beloved Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises…

[The Fire Emblem] app, while making it more accessible in comparison to the Fire Emblem games for Nintendo’s dedicated gaming systems, Nintendo aims to offer the great value of a role-playing strategy game. Nintendo will design [the Animal Crossing] game so that it will be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems. By playing both Animal Crossing games, users will find increased enjoyment.

Both of these are pure game applications. Compared to Miitomo, they have more prominent game elements, and the game content will tie closely into Nintendo’s dedicated games business.

 
That's pretty exciting. It's not really surprising that Nintendo would choose to focus on more game-related apps, given that's kind of what they do, but it does bring up the specter of worry in my mind. Maybe not so much for Animal Crossing, but for Fire Emblem at the least, there's a LOT of potential for Nintendo to pull some free-to-pay shenanigans into a title like that, and I worry that we might see some truly horrible choices come from a game like that.

On the other hand, while things have changed recently, historically, Nintendo has shown a reluctance to embrace the full free-to-play/DLC/Microtransaction model, so... hopefully that sentiment will come to a head for these projects. I suppose we'll find out closer to launch.