Miitomo

Miitomo[lower-alpha 2] was a freemium social networking mobile app developed by Nintendo for iOS and Android devices.[2][3] The app, Nintendo's first, allowed users to converse with friends by answering various questions, and featured Twitter and Facebook integration. The app was released in March 2016 for iOS and in May 2016 for Android, launching alongside their My Nintendo service.[4][5][6][7] Despite initially being a critical and commercial success, with over ten million downloads worldwide a month after release, its popularity dwindled soon after and it was ultimately discontinued in May 2018.

Miitomo
Miitomo Android app icon used for version 1, depicting the titular Mii characters
Developer(s)Nintendo EPD[lower-alpha 1]
Initial release
  • iOS
  • 17 March 2016 (2016-03-17)
  • Android
  • 1 May 2016 (2016-05-01)
Final release
2.4.0 /
  • 24 January 2018 (2018-01-24)
  • Discontinued
  • 9 May 2018 (2018-05-09)
EngineUnity[1]
Platform
Available in9 languages
List of languages
  • English
  • Dutch
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Spanish
TypeSocial networking service
LicenseFreemium
Websitemiitomo.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 9 May 2018)

Features

Miitomo served as a conversational app where users could communicate with friends by answering questions on various topics, such as favourite foods or current interests. Similar to Tomodachi Life, which some of the Miitomo development team also worked on,[8] players used a Mii avatar which they could create from scratch or obtain from their My Nintendo account or a QR code, and gave it a computer generated voice and personality. Users could add friends to Miitomo by communicating directly with their device or by linking the app to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. By tapping their Mii, users could answer various questions which were shared with their friends, while tapping their thought bubble allowed them to hear answers from other friends. Users could visit, or be visited by, other friends and were able to answer certain questions that would only be shared with a specific friend. Players were also able to take pictures of their Mii, known as MiiFotos, which could be shared with friends as well as posted online.[2][9][10] Performing various actions in the app would earn Miitomo Coins, which could also be obtained through in-app purchases. These coins could be spent on various clothing items that can be used to customize the user's Mii. Additional clothing items could be obtained through the Miitomo Drop minigame, which could be played by either spending Miitomo Coins or using Game Tickets earned through play. The app was tied into My Nintendo's rewards scheme, with users able to earn Miitomo Platinum Points by clearing missions such as changing their outfits daily or linking their accounts. Miitomo Platinum Points could be exchanged for special item rewards or additional Game Tickets, or could be combined with standard Platinum Points for other My Nintendo rewards.[11]

Development

Miitomo was initially announced on October 25, 2015.[12][13] Nintendo partnered with DeNA to leverage their understanding of mobile platforms as part of Nintendo's push for development on mobile devices, who were responsible for the service's infrastructure and My Nintendo integration.[14] The app was first released in Nintendo's home market of Japan on March 17, 2016, and was later released in Western territories on March 31, 2016.[15] The development team was headed up by Tomodachi Life's core developers, under the supervision of Super Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto.[8] Additionally, Nintendo announced plans to update the app further beyond the launch period.[8]

Albeit not required, users who linked their Nintendo Account to Miitomo enjoyed benefits such as cloud-saving. The app was released alongside the My Nintendo service respectively in all supported countries. Miitomo first launched in Japan on March 17, 2016, and by the end of the month, the app became officially available in all sixteen countries that were eligible for My Nintendo's pre-registration period.[lower-alpha 3][16] The app later became available in Mexico, Switzerland, and South Africa on June 30, 2016, and in Brazil on July 28, 2016.[17] An update in November 2016 added five new features, enabling users to send messages to friends, customize their rooms, share their outfits with the world in "Style Central", publicly answer questions in "Answer Central", and allow for the creation of "Sidekick" Mii characters, which have their own rooms.[18] Along with the major update, Miitomo launched in forty additional countries[lower-alpha 4] on the same day without any official announcements.[19]

In January 2018, Nintendo announced that the game would be discontinued, with its servers being shut down on May 9, 2018.[20][21] Nintendo also stated that a browser-based Mii Maker tool would be created in late May following the discontinuation of Miitomo, the likes of which could be used to transfer and save Mii characters created within the app.[22]

Reception

In Japan, Miitomo had one million users within three days of its launch, overtaking the instant messenger Line as the most downloaded free app on the Japanese App Store.[26][27] In the week after its initial launch, Nintendo's shares grew by eight percent following the success of the app.[28] In less than 24 hours after its worldwide launch on March 31, the app already had three million users globally, and also rose to the top of the U.S. App Store, overtaking Snapchat.[29][30] Miitomo later had 1.6 million downloads within its first four days in the United States.[31] By April 2016, Miitomo had a user base of over 10 million users with 300 million conversations between friends and 20 million screenshots taken within the app itself.[32]

Later observations conducted by SurveyMonkey however, found that only a quarter of the people who had downloaded it regularly opened the app by May 2016, being used half as much as Candy Crush Saga and Clash Royale.[33]

Notes
  1. Additional Work by DeNA
  2. ミートモ (Mītomo) in Japanese
  3. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.
  4. Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Botswana, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Republic of Moldova, Namibia, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Rwanda, Seychelles, Singapore, Suriname, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Aruba, Rwanda, and Zambia, the app was available only via Google Play since these countries had no official store on iOS at the time.

References
  1. Hiroshige Takaki (13 July 2016). "Cocos2d-xチューニング、マルチデバイス対応…任天堂エンジニアに聞いた「Miitomo」開発の裏側". goo news (in Japanese).
  2. Christian Nutt (29 October 2015). "Miitomo: What's Nintendo trying to do with its first smartphone app?". Gamasutra. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  3. Makuch, Eddie. "Nintendo's Miitomo Gets Release Date For Japan". GameSpot. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  4. "Miitomo – Distribution Countries". miitomo.com. Nintendo. Archived from the original on 2016-02-17. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
  5. Peckman, Matt. "5 Things Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé Told Us About Miitomo". Time. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  6. Good, Owen. "Miitomo Launches March 31st In The West, Nintendo Confirms". Polygon. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  7. "Pre-Registration for Nintendo's 'Miitomo' App Starts February 17th, Release Slated for Mid-March". TouchArcade. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  8. Otero, Jose (31 March 2016). "5 Things We Learned About Miitomo and Nintendo's Digital Future". IGN. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  9. Vogel, Mitch. "This Is How Nintendo's First Smartphone Game Miitomo Will Work". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  10. Whitehead, Thomas. "Miitomo to Include Photo Mode and Pre-Registration Will Bring 'Platinum' My Nintendo Point". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  11. Whitehead, Thomas. "Nintendo May Monetise Miitomo Through Outfits, and is Still Aiming for New Styles of Smart Device Games". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  12. WSJ Staff. "Nintendo Unveils First Smartphone Game–Recap". WSJ. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  13. Andrew Webster (29 October 2015). "Nintendo's first smartphone release is a free-to-play game called Miitomo". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  14. Phill Cameron (17 March 2015). "Nintendo and DeNA team up to bring Nintendo to smart devices". Gamasutra. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  15. Makuch, Eddie. "Nintendo's Miitomo Gets Release Date for Japan". GameSpot. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  16. Whitehead, Thomas (29 March 2016). "My Nintendo and Miitomo to Launch in the West on 31st March". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  17. Matheus de Lucca. "Miitomo já está disponível no Brasil para Android e iOS". br.ign.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  18. "Five New Features of the Big Update!". Miitomo. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  19. "Miitomo: Availability by country". Nintendo. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  20. "Nintendo is shutting down Miitomo". The Verge. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  21. Glagowski, Peter. "Pour one out for Miitomo, which shuts its doors after today". Destructoid. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  22. "Nintendo plans online Mii Maker, following death of Miitomo". Polygon.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  23. "MIITOMO iOS". Metacritic. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  24. Sophia Aubrey Drake (April 6, 2016). "Miitomo - To Miitomo to Youtomo". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  25. Nadia Oxford (April 1, 2016). "Miitomo iOS Review: That Tiny Tomodachi Life". USgamer. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  26. Strom, Steven. "Miitomo Reaches 1 Million Users in Japan". IGN. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  27. Peckham, Matt. "Nintendo's Miitomo Is Already Monstrously Popular". Time. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  28. Kharpal, Arjun. "Nintendo shares spike 8% on first smartphone app success". CNBC. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  29. Grubb, Jeff. "Miitomo hits No. 1 on U.S. iOS App Store in less than 24 hours". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  30. Skrebels, Joe. "Miitomo Hits 3 Million Worldwide Users". IGN. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  31. Grubb, Jeff. "Nintendo's Miitomo racks up 1.6M downloads in its first 4 days in the U.S". Venture Beat. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  32. Nintendo Japan. "Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ended March 2016". Nintendo.co.jp. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  33. Seppala, Timothy. "'Miitomo' players are apparently abandoning Nintendo's app". Engadget. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
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