Nintendo once had bold plans to quickly branch out into a raft of mobile game releases – but no more. When it launched its first app, Miitomo, back in 2016, Nintendo’s then-boss Tatsumi Kimishima said four more smartphone games would debut in the following 12 months.
In reality, Nintendo took several years to hit that milestone, and in the years since has shuttered several of them. Just one new Nintendo mobile game has launched in the last two years: Pikmin Bloom, developed by Pokémon Go maker Niantic.
This week, as Dragalia Lost joined Dr. Mario World and Miitomo on Nintendo’s shutdown game scrap pile, the publisher offered a brief update on the continued importance it places on its smartphone efforts.