Mobile Games and Nintendo

Metro.co.uk:

Mario Kart Tour is a disgrace that Nintendo should be ashamed of

Forbes:

‘Mario Kart Tour’ Has A Bad Subscription Model That Costs As Much As Apple Arcade

The Verge:

Mario Kart Tour is too cynical to be fun

The contrast between Mario Kart Tour and Apple Arcade is just brutal. At which point can we all acknowledge that making mobile games was a mistake for Nintendo? I'm sure they make a ton of money, but it's clearly coming at the cost of Nintendo's most valuable assets: its image, the way people perceive the company, and people's trust in Nintendo's ability to create amazing games.

Previously:

I’m not sure that free-to-play games can work as ads for console games. You know, the ones where the developer’s incentive is to create a good game and get people to buy it, not the ones where the developer’s incentive is to trick people into constantly coming back to something that’s actually not very enjoyable. I’m buying Nintendo consoles exactly because I want to avoid these kinds of games.

I have no doubt that Nintendo will make a lot of money from this, at least in the short run. I’m just not convinced that this isn’t going to do more damage than good in the long run.