Nintendo's first mobile app will be Miitomo... and it's not really a game

Earlier we told you that Nintendo would announce its first mobile game tomorrow (Oct. 29). Guess what? It’s already tomorrow in Japan, and the video game giant has announced this highly anticipated title during an investor briefing.

The new game goes by the name of Miitomo, and it’s pretty much a communication tool that uses Mii characters. It’s said to be part of an effort to get more people in touch with other Nintendo users, as they may currently be hesitant to get to know each other more. In essence, it’s a messaging app of sorts, so we wouldn’t exactly call this the “first game” from Nintendo. It’s just the first app they will be publishing.

More details will emerge as the release date comes closer. This should be soon, right? After all, Nintendo did tell us the first of their upcoming 5 titles would come this year. That’s where the bad news come. Nintendo also mentioned they won’t be launching Miitomo until March 2016. They do have an explanation for this delay, though. It seems Nintendo will need more time to appropriately promote Miitomo; the issue is they are busy promoting other apps right now.

On a brighter note, the game will be free to download and released globally. In similar fashion to most mobile games nowadays, there will be in-app purchases.

Another significant concern about these Nintendo games is that it first announced they had partnered with DeNA to build games together. This had plenty of us worried, as we suspected this might just be a simple licensing deal, but Nintendo did reassure that most of the games will be developed in-house.

Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto also states DeNA will mostly be in charge of game operations, so all these titles should still be designed by Nintendo, something that will be good news for fans. With all that in mind, let’s just wait until next year to see what Nintendo has been buttering up for us.