Legendary game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, best known for creating franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, and many other massive Nintendo franchises, isn’t too keen on the notion of Super Mario becoming a mobile-centric franchise.
During an interview with Variety, Miyamoto explained that Nintendo still wants the iconic plumber to be a vehicle for the company’s hardware.
“Mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games,” Miyamoto said. “First and foremost, Nintendo’s core strategy is a hardware and software-integrated gaming experience.”
“The intuitiveness of the control is a part of the gaming experience,” Miyamoto continues. “When we explored the opportunity of making Mario games for the mobile phone – which is a more common, generic device – it was challenging to determine what that game should be. That is why I played the role of director for Super Mario Run, to be able to translate that Nintendo hardware experience into the smart devices.”
Miyamoto’s words are not all that surprising since the best Super Mario games have always made clever use of Nintendo’s often peculiar hardware – the 3DS, Wii, and Wii U immediately come to mind.
Of course, Nintendo did release numerous games for mobile platforms over the past few years – most notably, Super Mario Run, Dr. Mario World, Miitomo, and Mario Kart Tour.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.