Second Nintendo smartphone game will feature its big IP

Mario? Zelda? Metroid? Donkey Kong? One of Nintendo’s bigger brands has been teased as the lead for the company’s second smartphone release.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Nintendo has told investors that its follow-up to debut smartphone title Miitomo will utilise a more recognisable character and IP – as has been previously suggested.

Said Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima: The second game won’t be another communication app, and we plan to adopt one of our characters that fans are very familiar with.”

The city’s reaction to the announcement of Miitomo, which is a social interaction app featuring Mii-like avatars, was muted and the general consensus is that the release is unlikely to do much to reverse Nintendo’s recent financial struggles. Registration for the app, which will arrive in March, will begin later this month.

Nintendo has predicted that its smartphone business will eventually lead to a quadrupling of profits. Speculation has suggested that future titles will be a mixture of premium and free-to-play.