The Super Mario Bros. Movie launches in North America tomorrow, and while that’s exciting, some Mario fans are wondering… what about the games? It’s been some time since we got an all-new mainline Mario platformer (2017’s Super Mario Odyssey being the last one) and even spinoffs are in short supply, with none to be released this year (that we know of).
Well, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto took a break from his budding film career to provide an update on where Mario video games are at in a new interview with Variety. In recent years, mobile has actually been the place to go for a lot of new Mario content, with games like Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour coming exclusively to iOS and Android, but Miyamoto now says “mobile apps will not be the primary path of future Mario games.”
Miyamoto explains that Mario games rely on intuitive controls, which just can’t be delivered as well on mobile platforms. There’s also the unspoken fact that these mobile Mario games, created in-house by Nintendo, took up development resources and didn’t provide a huge return. Estimates are Mario Run only made $60 million, and while Mario Kart Tour made more (around $300 million), that’s well short of the money Nintendo has generated with Mario Kart 8 which has sold over 60 million units. In other words, the effort that went into developing Mario Kart Tour would almost certainly have been put to much better use making a traditional console Mario Kart sequel.
Speaking of traditional sequels, what about the next mainline Mario platformer? Is that coming anytime soon? Variety asked Miyamoto directly about it, and he reportedly chuckled and replied “All I can say is please stay tuned for future Nintendo Directs.”
So, does that mean we’ll be getting new information soon? Technically, a show five years from now is still a “future Nintendo Direct.” That said, I’m going to be optimistic and believe Miyamoto was hinting they have something to show sometime soon-ish. Perhaps not the next full 3D Mario, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a new 2D project cooking.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters on April 5 in North America, and April 7 in Europe and the rest of the world. What are your thoughts on the future of the Mario franchise? What do you think/hope Nintendo has in the works?
