Mario Kart Tour

VO: Get ready for your semi-regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codelation. We like to talk about big ideas companies that are winning, and those that aren't along with current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Erick and Josh, who challenge you to think big, start small and turn your ideas into something on this episode of, from idea to done.

Josh: Hey everyone, I'm Josh

Erick: I'm Erick and today's idea is the new Mario kart app better than Mario kart on the consoles for Nintendo. We've reviewed new fun app games in the past, and I've been really excited about a bunch of others before. But today we're going to take a little bit different approach and look at this from a business perspective.

Josh: Erick, are you going to make me download an app?

Erick: That I will never use? Well, not this week, unless, unless you're really craving some Mario kart on your phone. I mostly wanted to kind of talk about the idea of Nintendo getting into mobile gaming, but let's this first things first I'm going to review the app and I honestly, you don't have to get it, but I wasn't a big fan of Mario kart. I have a drawer in my desk that says, in case of emergency open, it has a, we, you in it with a copy of Mario kart eight, we randomly you'll have a happy hour, some Fridays. And I rent out the conference room in our building, and then we drink and play Mario kart on the projector. The game is just better and it's a solid four years older than what Nintendo came out with last week. And so the, but this isn't the big takeaway that I had from this.

Josh: So what was your big takeaway?

Erick: Nintendo should have been making mobile games years ago. And so, and I actually, I watched a video with your boy, Gary V on it. And he's they say they'd been missing out on tons of revenue over the past years, the past 10 years or so by just not embracing mobile phones.

Josh: Yeah, I absolutely agree with that direction. I mean, if you have such an iconic brand and Nintendo, every guy that's in his thirties has to have some fond memories of one of their games to not lean on nostalgia to some level feels like a crime and a missed opportunity, or maybe not a crime, but it's definitely a missed opportunity. I don't buy anything gaming, but if you gave me a mobile version of Kristalis, a paper boy or a battle toads, I'd absolutely pay $5

Erick: For that. So it's just so hard. I can't handle it, but I would take my money. And I actually did a little bit of research on the sales. And so if you did kind of the combined sales of their current mobile gaming platform, which is an Nintendo 3DS and added that if you bought $200 worth of new games, once you got it, that overall number that I got from the sales would be $2.4 billion. I did a little more digging and the mobile app Pokemon go has now grossed over $3 billion according to Wikipedia. And that's just one game. And I know that the source is Wikipedia, but the numbers were actually kind of an interesting part for me.

Josh: The weird thing is I look and say, who spends two 200 hundred dollars in games them,

Speaker 4: Well, dude, this year, at least.

Josh: You know, well, if you think about it, Eric, what's the risk for Nintendo to put out another console. They have to invest a lot in research and development, the marketing of it. Um, granted you've got a larger wedge of, of the revenue, but there's more risk on a platform. You can roll out a test of, oh, I don't know, uh, river city ransom at a lower risk than producing it yourself.

Erick: River city ransom is fantastic. I'm liking some of our old nostalgia things in this episode. And night, to be honest, this makes me a little nervous for console gaming. I get what Nintendo is doing with these apps and to their credit compared to basically every other mobile game I've played, their controls are usually really good. The game looks amazing and they aren't just blatant cash grab games. I wish someone would just make a great mobile game that has an actual end and doesn't keep bugging me to buy things.

Josh: Yeah, I've downloaded, uh, some games that are fun for the first, I don't know, a few, few dozens or so times you play it, then they get into pay-to-play versions. I even got hooked into us silly Dr. Mario world game, and now I'm pretty much over it.

Erick: But you were hooked on it for a little bit. Don't don't get Mario kart.

Erick: I, but I really hope that Nintendo just as a company can find a really good balance of mobile games while still making quality consoles and better games. I would be really sad if the only way I could play Zelda was from my phone.

Josh: I wouldn't disagree with that. Even I, who does spends no money on games, went out and bought the original NES reboot last December. So I can play the original games just on a bigger TV. We,

Erick: We talked about the business strategy of Nintendo bringing some of their classic titles into the mix. And my technical nerd question for you is can our nerds make a mobile version of battle toads that we've been dreaming about?

Josh: Yes, we need to make battle toads. I don't think it's going to sit that well for profits in Q4, but Hey, why not

Speaker 4: The right answer? So finally

Erick: We get some more battles that came was so freaking hard. And like, honestly, if we charged people, a penny for 10 extra lives, we would be billionaires relatively

Josh: Soon. There we go. Nailed it. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a starter that could use our random advice and thoughts about river city ransom, have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.