Super Mario Run reviews hit Nintendo share price

Bad reviews of Nintendo’s Super Mario Run mobile game have led to an 11% fall in the firm’s share price.

The game is Nintendo’s first full venture into mobile gaming and marked a significant shift for the firm which had previously not made apps.

The game is only available via Apple’s app store and currently has an average rating of 2.5 stars.

Many players criticised the game and said it was expensive compared with other titles on the store.

The full game costs $10 (£8) but the first three levels of the game are free to play.

Negative reaction

Super Mario Run was released on 15 December and since then, Nintendo shares have fallen. Shares in gamemaker DeNA Co, which helped develop the game, have fallen by 14% over the same time period.

The game is the first fruit of a strategic change in direction Nintendo signalled in 2015 when it announced that it planned to start producing mobile games.

It features Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber scurrying across a scrolling landscape as he makes another attempt to rescue Princess Peach.

Players have complained that the three free levels could be completed too quickly and that it was too costly to buy the whole game.

“A $10 upfront cost to unlock the game is a huge ask and one that flies in the face of current mobile games being free-to-play,” Daniel Ahmad, an analyst for researcher Niko Partners, told Bloomberg.

Nintendo needed to do more to let people know what they would get if they paid for it, he added.

Players have also criticised the game’s need for an always-on internet connection which limited when and where they could play it.

Despite the negative reaction, Super Mario Run has topped the charts for most profitable games in many nations. Analysis firm App Annie said its monitoring of the game suggest it was downloaded more than 37 million times in its first three days. On average, it said, people spent more than 13 minutes every day on the game.

The launch of Super Mario Run came as Nintendo and partner Niantic relaunched Pokemon Go. That game enjoyed huge success earlier in the year but interest in it rapidly dwindled as updates dried up.

Source: BBC