If there’s any Nintendo franchise that holds a candle to Super Mario, it’s The Legend of Zelda. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Zelda will reportedly be joining Mario on mobile platforms in the near future. People familiar with Nintendo’s plans tell the Wall Street Journal that Nintendo will follow up its Animal Crossing game — set to hit smartphones later this year — with a Zelda mobile game.
Nintendo has released three mobile apps on iOS and Android to date: Miitomo, Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Each game differs drastically from the others — Miitomo is an interactive social network, Super Mario Run is an auto-run platformer with a majority of its content gated behind a $10 paywall and Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play strategy game with gacha collectibles.
While Super Mario Run saw a moderate amount of success in the days following its launch, the $10 fee turned out to be too much for many smartphone owners, as the conversion rate from free to paid users was disappointingly low. On the other hand, Fire Emblem Heroes has been a surprising success for the company — surprising because Fire Emblem doesn’t have nearly the cachet of the Mario franchise.
WSJ’s sources weren’t able to shed any light on how Nintendo might charge for the mobile Zelda game, but said that it is likely to release after the Animal Crossing game that Nintendo ended up delaying in favor of Super Mario Run. Animal Crossing is said to be coming out in the second half of 2017.
Separately, the report also cites two other sources who claim that the Pokemon Company is working on a new digital card game app, but few details were provided beyond that.
