Miitomo Coming To Smart Phones In March
[Updated: 2/3/16 @3:12am CT]
Shortly after posting the original story below, Nintendo of Europe published the following press release. As I had suspected, the Nintendo Account will be going live this month to make way for preregistration. While not officially announce by Nintendo of America, notice at the bottom of the press release that it lists the U.S. as one of the countries that will have preregistration for Miitomo. Whether or not it will be the exact same date is not known at the moment, but I expect we will hear about it shortly.
Nintendo’s first app made exclusively for smart devices, Miitomo, will launch* in the UK and Ireland in March for both iOS and Android phones and tablets. Today, Nintendo outlined the steps that fans can take to be among the first to get in on the social fun.
Starting 17th February 2016, people in the UK and Ireland will be able to preregister for Miitomo by creating a Nintendo Account using their Nintendo Network ID, social network accounts or email address. People who preregister for Miitomo will be among the first to be notified about the availability of Miitomo when it launches in March.
Miitomo is a social experience that uses Nintendo’s Mii characters to engage friends in a lighthearted, playful and welcoming social setting. Mii characters first debuted on the Wii console and to date, more than 200 million Mii characters have been created around the world. Using Mii characters users will be able to interact with their friends in an entirely new way to spark fun and interesting conversations by answering questions such as, “What song has been stuck in your head lately?”, “Do you believe in aliens?”, or even, “If you saw a nose hair sticking out of your friend’s nose, what would you do?” By answering questions in Miitomo, users will be able to discover surprising information and secrets about their friends, as well as share their experiences with others easily by taking and sharing photos featuring their Mii using the Miifoto feature.
Nintendo’s new My Nintendo** rewards program will launch alongside Miitomo in March 2016, and will be able to connect with Miitomo. A special Miitomo bonus will be offered to anyone in the UK and Ireland that creates a Nintendo Account between 17th February and the launch of Miitomo in March. My Nintendo aims to become much more than a traditional rewards program. It is a more comprehensive service that rewards users for interacting with Nintendo products and services in a variety of ways. Miitomo users with a Nintendo Account will be able to take advantage of My Nintendo to enhance their experience.
Including Miitomo, Nintendo plans to release approximately five smart device applications by the end of March 2017.
More information about Miitomo, Nintendo Account and My Nintendo will be available on https://miitomo.com/ in the coming weeks.
*Miitomo will launch in the following countries in March: the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, U.S., Canada. Preregistration is only available in these countries.
Miitomo at launch will support the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Russian and Japanese.
**My Nintendo will be available from March in the following countries: the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Malta, Greece, Sweden, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil.
[Original News Story]:
Last fall it was announced that Nintendo’s first foray into mobile devices would be delayed from November until March 2016. We’re barely into February, and Nintendo has once again confirmed that its first mobile game, Miitomo, will release next month in mid-March in sixteen major markets, including the U.S. and Japan. It will be available in eight different languages.
The Mii characters have been incredibly popular since the inception of the Wii back in 2006 (over 200 million created worldwide), so this casual dive into the mobile market might be the catalyst Nintendo needs to reach its goal of hitting 100 million My Nintendo registrations. Not a whole lot is known about Miitomo, other than it’s a communication application that sort of resembles Tomodachi Life, which released in 2014 for the 3DS.
Inside Miitomo is Mii Photo, which allows users to take pictures with their cellphones and create various images with the Miis. One such example shows a real photo of a cat and then a tiny Mii looking up at it. This sort of reminds me of the 3DS and it’s augmented reality cards where you could place your Mii into real photos. These can then be shared across social networks.
Now to the confusing part, which we expect to be cleared up soon once the official English transcript is released: In Japan customers can sign up for Miitomo via pre-registration (basically think preorder, although the app/game is free to play). Doing so requires a Nintendo Account, which has already been rolled out in Japan, and will net users some Platinum Points. What’s strange is that the Google Translation (I know it’s not the best source, but it’s what we have at the moment) also states “Not only Japan, in 16 countries all to be delivered early, we will carry out pre-registration”. So, what I believe that means is that the other countries will be able to pre-register, but the only problem with that is it requires the Nintendo Account to do so, and that hasn’t been released in any other territory yet. So, perhaps we’ll get the Nintendo Account sometime this month, or perhaps we won’t get Miitomo until the end of March, while Japan gets it in mid-March? It’s hard to say for certain, but I hope to have clarification soon.
Miitomo will be released for both iOS and Android. My Nintendo will start at the same time as Miitomo. The next smart phone game to be announced will feature a well recognized Nintendo IP. We’ll have more on that game and Miitomo as it approaches.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
