Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has labelled Nintendo’s initial foray into the mobile market as “a disaster,” echoing the company’s tumbling stock price after Miitomo‘s reveal.
Described by Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima as a “free-to-start type communication application for smart devices,” it will accompany new membership service My Nintendo when both launch in March 2016.
Analysts and investors reacted negatively, not only to the application being perceived as an underwhelming first product from their new partnership with DeNA but that it will now miss the expected release in 2015.
“I think this is a disaster,” Pachter told Fortune. “This is not a game. It’s a social network concept. Facebook is a robust social network. I don’t need Nintendo to give me a cartoon version of myself that allows me to interact with my friends. Facebook already dominates everybody who has social interactions. How the hell is Nintendo going to substitute for that? My friends who care know what I’m interested in – and the ones who don’t know aren’t interested.”
The first of five mobile applications, Miitomo’s announcement has sparked concern around whether Nintendo will turn to their more familiar IP to strike success.
He continued, “I think a lot of the appeal of the concept that Nintendo was going to enter the mobile market was attributable to a misperception that Nintendo would take its library of content and move it onto the mobile platform. It doesn’t look like they have any intention of doing that.”
