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Back in March 2015, when the aftershocks from Nintendo's announcement of its partnership with mobile giant DeNA were still being felt, the then president Satoru Iwata soothed the concerns of investors enquiring whether the company would pursue the controversial gacha model for its forthcoming collaborations. "I naturally believe it impossible that they will be offered to consumers via a business model to which Nintendo cannot agree," Iwata said while taking questions in an investor's briefing, and for a short while that's been true of Nintendo's mobile games. Yet following Miitomo and last December's Super Mario Run, Nintendo's third mobile outing - Fire Emblem Heroes, developed alongside long-time affiliate Intelligent Systems - is a gacha game. Here, instead of a one-off payment, players are ushered in for free and later encouraged to pour money in for a chance to unlock part of Fire Emblem Heroes' sizeable roster. It's gambling, in a fashion, and already players are putting eye-watering amounts of money into the game in order to attain high-powered characters.
Nintendo's change in tack when it comes to its monetisation models for mobile games has been swift, although it's hardly counter to the company's DNA. While in recent years it's prided itself on its family friendly image - a self-styled Disney of the video game world - gambling is in its blood, the business being built upon the success of hanafuda cards that were popularised by Yakuza in illicit parlours. For all that, though, Fire Emblem Heroes feels like Nintendo making its first tentative steps rather than diving in with both feet first.
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