Miitomo, Nintendo’s first ever mobile game, is shutting down soon. Nintendo has recently announced that Miitomo coins, which is the in-game currency, will no longer be sold starting today, and that the mobile app altogether will end on May 9th. However, for those players who have already purchased coins prior to this announcement, Nintendo said that they are planning to refund any unused Miitomo coins.
When Miitomo was launched back in 2015, it was described as a “social experience,” where players can create their own Mii, Nintendo’s trademark avatar, and socialize with other players online. It was an interesting concept at first, since back then, Mii’s were the cute and adorable avatars that was first introduced for the Nintendo Wii. However as time passed, Miitomo quickly became a sort of weird app rather than the budding social media platform that Nintendo hoped it would become.
Come to think of it, Nintendo’s decision to pull the plug on the app is a step that is inevitable. Although in its initial launch, the app ranked number one in the App Store back in 2015, Miitomo failed to deliver on the hype, which led to players losing interest almost immediately. In fact, earlier this year, Nintendo shut down Miiverse, the spiritual predecessor to Miitomo that connected players from several Nintendo systems such as the 3DS and the WiiU.
As the Nintendo Switch gains popularity, it seems that Nintendo is trying to look into the future, by introducing new features that would compliment its consoles. If you look at the Switch today, there is very little interaction with the Mii system as it did in previous consoles, which is already an indicator that the company is deciding to leave those cute avatars behind. So what would Nintendo replace Miiverse with? We don’t know. They might not even replace the feature altogether. Perhaps when Nintendo’s online service is introduced sometime this year, they would probably make an announcement on that.
What do you think of Nintendo’s decision to pull the plug on Miitomo? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
