Here Are Nintendo’s Next Two Smartphone Apps

Nintendo’s next two smartphone apps will take their cues from the company’s town-building Animal Crossing and fantasy-strategy focused Fire Emblem franchises. Both will arrive sometime this autumn, says the company.

Don’t let Nintendo calling them “apps” worry you. The company says its Fire Emblem app will be a bona fide role playing strategy game, just one that’s “more accessible” for the generalist smartphone and tablet demographic. The Animal Crossing app, by contrast, will be designed to connect to the company’s devoted game systems, but Nintendo assures “both of these are pure game applications.” And not like Miitomo, says Nintendo, which has game-like elements, but focuses more on social interaction.

Speaking of, the company says Miitomo–released in Japan on March 17 and everywhere else March 31–now commands more than 10 million users worldwide. It’s sparked some 300 million conversations and resulted in over 20 million Miifotos, says Nintendo, the latter referring to the app’s ability to grab stills of your cartoon-like Mii character doing goofy things.

As an aside, circle back to Nintendo’s earnings report and you’ll notice this line in the management section: “For the purpose of maximizing the population that interacts with Nintendo IP, we have entered into the smart device gaming business.” I find that fascinating, because while it syncs with everything Nintendo’s said about its mobile strategy, it says it very straightforwardly: That smart devices are a means to a more holistic end, and not the end itself.

That end, still little more than an amorphous curtain sporting the mystery moniker “NX,” will finally lift later this year.