When Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage at Apple’s iPhone 7 reveal last week, he announced that Super Mario Run would come to the App Store at a set price.
Well, sort of, as we’ve learned.
Nintendo’s taking the same approach with Super Mario Run that they did with games likeRusty’s Real Deal Baseball (which I adored) on the Nintendo 3DS. It’ll be free-to-start.
Super Mario Run will be free to download, as Shigeru Miyamoto explained this to IGN. But what you get when you snag the free version isn’t the full game.
“The basic goal is to give people a sample of what the gameplay will be so that they can get a sense of what they’ll experience when they get the full game…”
Once you sample those levels, you’ll have the option to buy the full game at a single price through an in-app-purchase. Here’s Miyamoto on that decision.
“But of course one of the reasons that we want to offer the game for a set price is so that parents who are buying it for their kids can know that ‘I’ve bought the game and now my kids can play it as much as they want and there’s not going to be additional costs associated with that.’ But obviously I think between the world tour single player mode and clearing all those levels, plus the kingdom mode, plus the battle mode, you’re going to want the full experience because it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Remember: just because you see that free download button for Super Mario Run, the whole game isn’t free. If you want to take the plumber on his first full mobile adventure, you’ll have to cough up some coins. The good news is that you’ll only cough them up once. At least, that’s the case for now.
