After the huge success of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Nintendo Switch and the Pokémon Go mobile game, it seems Nintendo will try to keep the momentum going with brand new mobile games for both franchises.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, people close to the situation have confirmed that after the already announced Animal Crossing mobile game is released later this year, Zelda will be next to come to mobile devices.
These same people said that the Animal Crossing mobile game will arrive in the latter half of 2017 with The Legend of Zelda to follow. However, these sources said the timing of the releases could be changed, similar to how the Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem Heroes mobile games were announced for a 2016 release but Super Mario Run was announced and released first.
Representatives of Nintendo and DeNA, the Toyko-based game development firm, declined to comment.
What The Legend of Zelda mobile game will be is anyone’s guess. Nintendo has always wanted to adapt their properties that fits that brand. Could a proper Zelda game come to mobile, with 8-bit dungeon crawling? Or will Nintendo take a different approach similar to Super Mario Run?
Fire Emblem Heroes was a perfect example of giving hardcore gamers an experience worth their time while also being accessible to new players. We can hope that Nintendo brings something close to a proper Zelda game instead of something like a Match-3 puzzle game using Zelda characters.
The report also states that The Pokémon Company is planning a new card game app. With the popularity of the physical Pokémon TCG and the iPad-only TCG game, The Pokémon Company could finally be bringing the trading card game on-the-go.
It would be the first Pokémon game to come to mobile devices. Pokémon Shuffle was a Nintendo 3DS game first before a mobile version was added a few months later. Pokémon Go, a global phenomenon that earned Nintendo (who has 32 percent stake in The Pokémon Company and its profits) 20 billion Yen, which is close to $200 million. And then Pokémon Duel, a figure fighting game, was released worldwide.
Nintendo’s president, Tatsumi Kimishima, has said the company plans to expand its mobile lineup to boost revenue. The mobile games are also intended to attract casual game players and encourage them to buy Nintendo hardware, which Pokémon Go was attributed to the 3DS’ rise in hardware and software sales.
We’ll likely learn more about Animal Crossing and future Nintendo mobile games at E3 2017.
So what do you think of the reported The Legend of Zelda mobile game? What type of game do you want? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
