Nintendo has announced its first mobile app, called Miitomo. The app has you creating custom Miis and answering questions about your personality and interests. Then your Mii goes off and starts conversations with other Miis….for you. Like a tiny wingman.
The whole idea behind the app is that it will encourage people who are hesitant to talk to each other to get into friendly conversations. Fortunately, Nintendo has been really good at monitoring all of its social experiences in the past. Its entire reputation balances on it being a safe environment for families. So this might be the perfect social experience for kids who are too young for Facebook or Twitter. Plus, for the time being, it looks like you’ll only be able to chat with people who are already on your friends list.
Miitomo will be free to play, though there will be “attractive add-ons” available for purchase, according to the Wall Street Journal. Subsequent Nintendo apps, however, will cost money to download. There will be five more apps by March 2017.
Your tiny wingman will talk you up at all the coolest Mii parties.
There’s more: the app, which was promised before the end of the year, has been delayed until March 2016. Nintendo says the delay is to give time for Nintendo to fully explain the app, since the company is busy tied up promoting their holiday games right now. They don’t expect Miitomo to be a massive moneymaker, rather, they hope to use it to further promote Nintendo IP and encourage more people to check out the consoles. So they don’t see the delay as a hit to profits.
Perhaps to make up for the delay, President Kimishima also teased that there are more unannounced games coming to both the Wii U and the 3DS before the end of the year. Recently, we heard rumors that a Twilight Princess HD re-release might be coming soon for Wii U. Keep your fingers crossed, Zelda fans.
Kimishima also mentioned that Nintendo would be pushing more games specifically targeted at women, like the upcoming Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Animal Crossing amiibo cards have apparently been performing very well, and Nintendo will be shipping out more starting today. Overall, amiibo sales hit 21.1 million at the end of September (compared to 14.7 million at the end of June).
Well, there’s a lot to unpack here. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles this new foray into social apps.
