Miyamoto States that Mario Will Move Away from Mobile Games

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, recently took part in an interview with Variety Magazine where he confirmed that the Mario series would move away from mobile games. This is perhaps to focus more on offerings for the Nintendo Switch and their next piece of hardware. In the interview centered around the upcoming Super Mario Bros, Miyamoto said the following:

"Mobile apps will not be the primary path of Mario moving forward"

While this doesn't outright confirm that Mario will no longer have games developed for mobile, it does suggest that Nintendo is reeling back the IP to their consoles. This is understandable considering how the Nintendo Switch has been lacking a big mainline Mario title since 2017- meaning there's been a six-year gap between titles. While likely not having a huge impact, the focus on mobile titles has likely taken some manpower and budget from the core series on Nintendo's consoles. This is evidenced by the lack of any new Mario Kart on the Switch- with the decision to instead integrate an 'expansion pass' adding several new tracks and characters instead of a whole new game.

This decision is likely not related to the success of Mario's mobile offerings. With the biggest being Super Mario Run and Mario Kart: Tour, Nintendo has made a lot of money from several different microtransactions. With Mario Kart: Tour, at least, updates are frequent and substantial. Whether this announcement will take away from updates for existing games is unclear, but Miyamoto's statement seems to indicate this being the case. While not all Mario offerings on mobile have been successes (looking at Super Dr. Mario World in particular), the brand has had a strong presence on non-Nintendo devices since its debut in 2016- and it may be puzzling to some why they would drop this huge potential player base to focus on core titles.

This move could indicate that Nintendo is gearing up to announce a new set of Mario games on the Switch or their next console. With how protective the company is over their Italian plumber; it makes sense that they'd want to keep him on their own devices. Even after 38 years since his first game, Mario remains the most recognizable and popular video game character in the world- and Nintendo knows it. Whether the move away from mobile signifies a new slew of Mario games being developed for the Switch or whether it’s simply a way to preserve the brand to Nintendo-only hardware, it's unlikely that we'll see another wholly new offering in the series for the platform for a while.