Nintendo Stocks Drop After Super Mario Run Reviews
By Boston Blake 19 December 2016
Despite the successful launch of Super Mario Run in North America, Nintendo stocks are down as investors worry about the high price and future content of the game.
It’s been a roller-coaster year for Nintendo and its shareholders. The gaming company’s stock has seen numerous dramatic rises and falls, due in large part to major announcements and games from Nintendo and its partners.
The most recent sudden change in Nintendo’s stock comes on the heels of the underwhelming reception of Nintendo’s highly-anticipated mobile title, Super Mario Run. The company’s stocks dropped a significant 16 percent in just five days, with 7.1 percent of that drop happening on Monday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Monday marks the fifth day Nintendo’s shares have been in decline, and at the moment they don’t seem to be slowing. That said, the hype surrounding Super Mario Run in preparation for its release spiked Nintendo’s shares with many investors expecting the game to perform well with both players and critics.
However, as has been the story throughout 2016, the excitement was short lived, with investors quickly taking issue with lukewarm reviews and some aspects of the game. Aside from the mediocre reviews, the most notable problem for many shareholders is the price for Super Mario Run, which clocks in at a whopping $9.99. While that may not seem like much to console and PC gamers, it’s a hefty price to pay for a mobile game, even one from Nintendo.
Additionally, Super Mario Run doesn’t have any new content coming in the new future, meaning mobile gamers are expected to shell out $9.99 from the start, without the promise of ongoing support and additional content. While some may argue that paying a single price once to avoid ads and microtransactions is a good thing, the current price is still a steep request from Nintendo.
According to analysts, Super Mario Run’s stark contrast from Pokemon GO’s free-to-play format may stop some gamers from opening their wallets. Granted, Pokemon GO includes microtransactions – which have been very successful for both Nintendo and developer Niatnic, by the way – but such purchases aren’t required for players to enjoy the game. Additionally, Niantic has put a significant amount of time and effort into adding new content to the game.
That’s not to say Super Mario Run hasn’t already found success. After launching late last week, the game quickly became the top-downloaded game on the App Store in North America. However, it failed to do so in Japan, which is an important market for Nintendo. Comparatively, Pokemon GO reached and stayed at the top-downloaded spot for weeks worldwide.
Fortunately, with the successful launch of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch event, Nintendo is well-positioned for a strong start to 2017. There’s also the impending release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which could potentially skyrocket Nintendo’s stock back into the clouds, this time to remain there for a while.
What do you think about Nintendo’s stocks dropping after the release of Super Mario Run?
Super Mario Run is currently available on iOS devices, and is set to release on Android devices in 2017.
