I'm the same way. I grew up playing Atari 2600, NES and arcade games. It was back when you'd pay once for a game and you'd be able to play it without any additional bogus. This is why I don't game as much nowadays, because the direction that games are going in are in the more "limited" territory. If I wanted to play an online-only game, I'd play an MMORPG on my PC or another mobile game that was designed for that in every way. There are some mobile games that do it good though. Mortal Kombat X for example allows for both online and offline play. Excluding a game from an offline feature when it doesn't look like it was designed for online play from the start and by implementing a "social networking" system as an excuse to make it online-only makes it sound lazy, because there are old-school gamers like me that never cared about that. I would've gladly paid $10 for Super Mario Run had it featured an offline option. I think it's best if I stick with Giana Sisters.
When I bought my first ipad about five years ago iPad lots of mobile games were already online only, and as I knew I'd be using it a lot when out and about so made sure to purchase a cell data/wifi model. I have a 15gb monthly plan for £10 a month and never come close. My Daughter has a cell model but no plan as she doesn't take it out a lot, but on the rare occasion we do take it out, I have the option of paying for 24 hours or a weeks data quite cheaply. Although she usually just plays one of the millions of other games that don't require Internet. I know she will be looking forward to racing against her friends when they meet up but won't be able to as none of them have data plans. For me, and my child, this won't be an issue and I'm looking forward to buying the game as much as I was before, I can see it being an issue for school kids etc. Nobody I know has their child on a cell plan and just tops up their credit, using that credit on data gobbles up the money quickly and a lot of parents refuse to put them on a plan as they think it's like a contract and don't realise that many plans are now month to month. Or that they can buy a data bundle with the credit they put in the kids phone. I can see how it's frustrating for those who fly a lot and only play games then, but I'm not sure thats a big enough percentage of lost customers for Nintendo to scrap the always online. I think they will lose more potential customers if it turns out to be iOS 10 as I wouldn't be shocked if there are way more users on older devices that don't support iOS 10 than users who don't have data plans. I'm also 36 and prefer buying outright, we don't live in those times anymore though and I try not to say to my Daughter how good it was when I was a kid as she rolls her eyes at me in the same way I did at 11 when adults said the old days were better
When they pay. Im an old Mann gamer, too, and get it... the market is different. Who heck is having to pay for extra data due to gamez, anyway? I pay a flat rate for my wife and i's plan... 12GB... and we barely scratch that because we use wifi most of the time...
Seriously, how is it that the mobile gaming enthusiast community, when presented with a massive, gorgeous new space shooter, and a BRAND NEW FREAKING MARIO GAME THAT THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PAY TO TRY OUT, has turned so cynical? How is it that people like the TA staff people like myself who have been around mobile gaming on a daily basis for the entire life of the App Store aren't these massively jaded cynics like you see in the rest of the gaming media and it's our community that shits on anything potentially cool for any minor flaw? Don't like Mario's online requirement? Go play something else in those moments you don't have internet. Don't like GOF3's free to play? Don't play it, there's hundreds of cool paid games to go play. I can't keep up with everything I want to play, and covering mobile gaming is my damn job. Take it from Conan O'Brien, please do not be cynical.
Yeah let's stop discussing everything . Only positive things to say from now . Thank you Nintendo for giving us a Mario runner for the cheap price of 10$ and always online .
The whole online requirement is obnoxious and disappointing. It's possible Nintendo purposely let this piece get out in the open to see how people would respond, which could effect removing it before the December 15th release. I'm curious to see how this is going to go when it releases and a few weeks after. Lots of people will be traveling for the holiday so they'll discover the requirement of needing internet to play. I'm really curious most of all how people will respond that it's Nintendo in comparison to EA when they released Sim City. They got so much flack for requiring internet to play. Nintendo can remove this at anytime its an update. We'll see what happens I guess.
Good advice. I'll skip GOF3 and probably SMR. It just makes me wonder... why aren't Rockstar Games as worried about piracy as Nintendo or Ubisoft?! Because Bully is way cheaper and way deeper of a game compared to SMR. Anyway, thanks for the advice.
It's easier to not worry about piracy when you've already made your money selling millions of copies of a game for $60. Porting costs are minimal, Bully is effectively 100% profit for Rockstar. GoF 3 has been in the works for years, and it wouldn't surprise me if a surprising amount of resources have also been dumped into Super Mario Run. That isn't what Carter is saying at all, maybe reread his post a couple more times.
Well, you're also talking about a game that has been around for like a decade now versus a brand-new title. I don't blame Nintendo for wanting to be careful with anti-piracy when this is set to be a massive game for them. I think they should have offline support, but again there are so many games out there that this should register as a minor annoyance at best for folks, and one where the solution is "play something else."
This is why I don't understand why Nintendo hasn't released tons of ports on mobile devices through an Nintendo Emulator app with IAP for each game. I'd imagine GOF3 was made to be way more F2P because it's projected to make more money with those monetization tactics. And sure, anti-piracy is a nice benefit. For a premium runner like SMR, though, it makes sense that they don't want to lose profit to piracy. And I'm sure plenty of people will still enjoy it however Nintendo wants to package it. Needless to say, it's a bummer for me. And I'd like to have a place to complain about it and maybe make a difference with my opinion. Not that Nintendo has ever listened to my opinion before. When I suggested a handheld device with 3 screens that I could touch and smell, they only gave us 2. And it just smelled like my hands.
I just read/watched this somewhere, but cant find it now. Something Miyamoto said iirc. When Mario became big, the talk of the town was "Mario is bigger than Mickey Mouse." Mario has only been out a year or 2 during that time, and Mickey was out for 40 years... And Miyamoto's thought along the lines were that Mickey Mouse was only able to be successful for the 40 years because of how much Mickey Mouse evolved over those 40 years. And when asked about what he thinks about the Mario-Mickey Mouse comparison, his reply was to see how the Mario franchise is in 40 years... Somewhere along those lines. The keyword there is evolve. Evolve to survive and stay successful. Which is what games currently are doing, especially in the spoiled mobile platform.
Dammit, I want my Ninsmelldo! Nintendo's stance on piracy is hardly new - it has always very stringently protected its IP (see Great Giana Sisters in the late 1980s). And Nintendo will never release tons of ports over an emulator app because it is still pushing hardware, which in turn makes piracy somewhat more difficult. I'm still excited by Super Mario Run, even if I'm less than enamoured by the online requirement. All my Nintendo experience has been somewhat vicarious, playing on other people's systems, as I went the Amiga, Sega and Sony route in my youth. This is my first chance to actually own a Nintendo game. I'll probably see what the data demands are like before I buy the IAP to unlock the full game, though.
Pokémon Go raked in so much cash. It's not even that great of a game, but nostalgia, fans, and hype made it a massive success. I mention the above, because that's the kind of success that Nintendo is after with SMR. Nostalgia, fans, and hype will be what drives the sales. Since SMR is a one-time purchase, rather than free with unlimited IAPs, they want to ensure sales and prevent piracy. That's why they worked in enough online functionality in order to slip in the always-online DRM. Nintendo isn't worried about those who don't have mobile data or refuse to play games that require data. Thanks to Pokémon Go, they know the market is filled with customers who can and will play on mobile data. That's the demographic they are looking to tap. From a business perspective, it makes sense. I'm not saying that the online-required aspect isn't lame. It is. But we have to realize that if Nintendo brought their most iconic franchise to third party hardware only to see it pirated to hell right out of the gate would be absolutely disastrous and would likely cause them to withdraw their efforts of branching into the mobile market any further. There is so much riding on this being a financial success, and the loss of the small portion of customers who won't get it because of the online requirement does not outweigh the risk of the greater losses if the game got pirated.
Amen Reverend! I can't wait for this game. My entire household is buying it. We all have the notifications ready. My daughter and her boyfriend are getting it. My brother and his two sons are buying it. We don't care that it requires online. We just care that it's going to be a new, amazing, Super Mario experience on our iPhones. I'm excited and cannot wait until the 15th. Billy
