If Mario Run wasn't able to do it, albeit it had a couple things holding it back, then it'll be hard for anyone to create such phenomenon. Pokemon and Mario are the two big draws in the game industry and beyond. I would say CoD and GTA as well but I'm not sure how well received they are in the general public that could possibly make a phone app of their respective series gain that kind of traction.

That. Also Harvest Moon, even though it's not Nintendo's IP IIRC.

OT : Going freemium or paid is about what they really want.

If they want some easy revenue on the short term, with a risk of loosing every possible mobile revenue later, paid is the way to go. (At some point no one will be willing to pay 5-10 bucks for a nintendo mobile game)

If they want to strengthen their IPs, market their console games, bring in a new generation towards Nintendo and remind older "ex-"gamers Nintendo is still cool, freemium is the best long term solution.

Model of release for Mario Run definitely isn't best one, but in any case main goal for this game (or any Nintendo mobile games) want to make huge profit, but leverage IP awareness and use them like a marketing tool.

Maybe don't put a mobile calibre platformer behind a $15 paywall next time :^)

Any news on how Fire Emblem Heroes is going? I personally got bored of it after a week, but still seems to be going strong amongst some other communities I follow.

Well, Pokemon GO gave merged a very powerful brand with a very unique kind of game... Previous mobile Pokémon games didn't have the same effect.

Mario Run on the other hand is just a runner game (that requires always online with no gameplay justification and that drain mobile battery at an incredible level) for 10 $... If Nintendo can find an innovative way to create a Mario mobile game thaey could find the same success than with Pokémon GO.

So people aren't willing to pay $10 for a full Mario Run game, but are willing to spends hundreds of dollars throughout the year on a game they claim they didn't have to pay for. People are stupid.

I hate to say it but Nintendo might be getting in the way of their own success here. Pokemon Go was made by the Pokemon Company and Niantic primarily and we see the kind of success that has .... Mario Run, Miitomo are more of Nintendo's "unique" way of doing things and aren't nearly as successful. 

In the long run the freemium model will get more revenue compared to single purchase model as long as the userbase is large enough so I didn't know why Nintendo prefer the Mario Run model compared to FE heroes model. They can make the game keep updated with more content (and more microtransaction) to keep ppl interested.

Should have been free-to-play, if money is what they're after. Especially with the toad rally stuff. People pay alot to somehow stick out in any way.

Actually, a free-to-play mariomaker would work fantasticaly, if you let people pay to give their courses more attention.

Well maybe they're a different kind of people. The ppl which aren't willing to buy Mario Run is most likely play just for fun. So they won't even bother with microtransaction. Or maybe they just hate Mario