Super Mario Creator Has a Serious Warning for the Gaming Industry

Microtransactions, for the most part, have been carefully balanced in games over the years. However, last year's loot box controversy affected a number of releases, including Star Wars: Battlefront II and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. Though they've since been fixed, they've left quite a warning sign on the industry: and the creator of Mario believes we should pay better attention.

Per this report from Bloomberg, Shigeru Miyamoto recently spoke at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC) in Japan, noting that players shouldn't be "nickel and dimed" for the industry to get ahead. "We're lucky to have such a giant market, so our thinking is, if we can deliver games at reasonable prices to as many people as possible, we will see big profit."

He noted that Nintendo is looking into different ways to have consumers pay for games, rather than the free-to-play model that games like Fortnite are cashing in heavily on.

He did note that there are still things that need to be fixed as they try to find this ideal pricing model, but progress is being made. "I can't say that our fixed-cost model has really been a success, but we're going to continue pushing it forward until it becomes entrenched," said Miyamoto. "That way everyone can develop games in a comfortable environment. By focusing on bringing games to the widest range of people possible, we can continue boosting our mobile game business."

There have been some notable successes for Nintendo in the mobile market, like with Fire Emblem and Pokemon Quest, but others, like Animal Crossing and Super Mario Run, failed to make an impact. So you can see that the company is still experimenting.

Miyamoto also discussed subscription services. "It's necessary for developers to learn to get along with (them)," he noted. "When seeking a partner for this, it's important to find someone who understands the value of your software. Then customers will feel the value in your apps and software and develop a habit of paying money for them."

Hopefully we'll see this applied in 2019 when Nintendo brings its Mario Kart franchise to mobile, so people aren't "nickel and dimed," so to speak.

Let's see if the industry heeds Miyamoto's words...and how well Nintendo continues to thrive from them.