Only 5 percent of Nintendo's mobile game, "Super Mario Run", players paid $10 (£8) to fully unlock the game, a major news company reported today.
"Super Mario Run, the company's first game for smartphones, had 78 million downloads, yet only 5 percent of those opted to pay $10 for the full version," Bloomberg's report stated.
No less than Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima also noted that this outcome was far from what Nintendo originally expected, which was somewhere along the lines of a double-digit conversion rate. The same report went on to say, "The company's long-awaited entry into smartphone gaming also disappointed."
"That translates to a surprisingly small amount of money: somewhere in the ballpark of $40 million... Popular games like 'Clash of Clans' and 'Game of War' rake in millions every day; the same can be said for 'Pokémon GO.' And none of those games cost any money up front," Business Insider said.
"That $40 million is actually a tremendously generous guess; if we're being real, Nintendo's made far less than $40 million on 'Super Mario Run'," it added since Apple takes a cut on all the apps paid for from their store.
"Super Mario Run" was launched exclusively for Apple's iPhone and iPad on Dec. 15, 2016.
While it's free to download, players need to pay up to be able to play the full version after playing the first five levels.
"And $10 for an iPhone game is, to many people, an unacceptably high price," Business Insider noted.
That goes to show that being upfront might be the more difficult approach compared to the usual in-app purchase option.
Despite this setback, Nintendo intends to follow-through in the mobile gaming department by releasing its second mobile game, "Fire Emblem" on Feb. 2. Also, the "Super Mario Run" version for Android will be out in March, which could help boost the game's overall revenue.
