The question that’s circling effectively every place on the internet that discusses video games that has any kind of mobile gaming inkling to it right now is dominated by one thing: When exactly is Super Mario Run going to finally hit the App Store? Something is definitely happening, as per AppShopper version history, a 1.0 version of the game was pushed to the App Store earlier today, with an initial download that weighs in at just under 200MB. (You may have gotten a push alert from the TouchArcade app for this, sorry!) With it officially being Thursday the 15th in most areas of the world right now, it feels like the game could hit at any time. Japan Times is claiming a 5:00 PM release time in Japan, which would put it at Midnight Pacific but aside from this cryptic Nintendo tweet I haven’t seen that mentioned anywhere else, so I’m taking it with a pretty massive grain of salt.
Historically, games with tightly controlled global launches (Like games from the Angry Birds Series) when marketed with a Thursday release date will hit the App Store a little after midnight Pacific time. Other games have appeared randomly in the early morning. My gut is telling me we really shouldn’t expect a late night launch from Super Mario Run. I’d love to be wrong, but consider Nintendo has been pushing this “Notify" thing pretty hard, consistently featuring Super Mario Run on the App Store and letting people choose to get an alert when the game is available.
You would think that they would want this alert to hit at the absolute most impactful time, when people have their phones, and immediately go download the game- Not just getting mixed up in the onslaught of alerts folks typically wake up to between email, social networks, news apps, and other stuff. I feel like this release is going to be highly calculated, as everything has indicated that both Apple and Nintendo have all their marketing lasers firmly focused on this game’s launch breaking all records. If that’s your goal, I can’t see them just farting the game out and blasting a bunch of push alerts in the middle of the night. That’s my theory, anyway.
Anyway, since us hardcore iOS gamers are up late waiting for the game, I figured we could have a little fun. Leave a comment with what time you think Super Mario Run will be available tonight or tomorrow. Be sure to mention a time zone, or a region if you think they’re going to do region-specific roll outs. When the game is eventually released, we’ll be able to look back and see who got it right, or at least who was the closest. Think of it as the Super Mario Run equivalent of guessing the number of beans in the jar at the fair.
Do you think the game is going to pop up at midnight Pacific? Is Japan Times correct? Are they going to release the game at some weird time tonight then do the notify alert later? Something different? Just think of the bragging rights if you guess correctly.
