In a new interview with Mashable, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto had a few words to say regarding Nintendo’s new iOS game Super Mario Run. One question, in particular, rose during the chat which especially stands out, and it concerns playing the game offline.
According to Mashable, iOS users won’t be able to play Run without an internet connection unlike a large majority of games available for the platform. This means that players will need a constant Wi-Fi connection or cellular data in order to play, and it’s all thanks to piracy and security reasons.
As per a quote from Miyamoto, the reason you can’t play Run without Wi-Fi is due to Nintendo not having control over who gets to play the game and who doesn’t. Since almost all of the company’s games are based on their own dedicated gaming systems, they have full control over all software and who has access to it. With a game based on iOS being released, however, Nintendo loses their grip on their own software and, in turn, makes it available for any pirate to get his/her hands on it and rip the company off. That is, if you could play the game offline. But since all data is backed up to Nintendo via an internet requirement and Nintendo cloud account, security stays a bit stronger and the risk of piracy drops.
Here’s Miyamoto’s full quote regarding the matter.
For us, we view our software as being a very important asset for us. And also for consumers who are purchasing the game, we want to make sure that we’re able to offer it to them in a way that the software is secure, and that they’re able to play it in a stable environment.
We wanted to be able to leverage that network connection with all three of the [Super Mario Run] modes to keep all of the modes functioning together and offering the game in a way that keeps the software secure. This is something that we want to continue to work on as we continue to develop the game.
But actually, the security element is one of the reasons that we decided to go with iPhone and iOS first. So this is just — based on the current development environment — a requirement that’s been built into the game to support security and the fact that the three different modes are connecting to the network and interacting with one another.
I guess that also explains why Super Mario Run isn’t yet available on Android…
It’s worth noting that Nintendo is considering making the World Tour mode available offline at some point in the future, but it’s a bit difficult to make it available immediately since it ties so tightly in with Toad Rally and Kingdom, the game’s two other modes.
We had thought at one point that it would be nice to have the World Tour [story] mode available standalone, to be able to play without that connection. But then the challenge is when that’s operating in a standalone mode, it actually complicates the connection back to the Toad Rally and Kingdom modes. And because those two modes are relying on the network save, we had to integrate the World Tour mode as well.
Oh, and all references to security here mean piracy.
Just to be clear: When you say “security,” you mean the risk of piracy, right?
That’s correct.
All in all, excited gamers might find being not able to play Run offline a deal breaker, ultimately resulting in their non-use of the game. However, since the app already looks as stellar as we think it’ll be, this caveat may not pose as such a big takeaway from the game. Nevertheless, it would still be nice to play a Super Mario game on my smartphone in the car or while on the subway. Guess we’ll have to see what happens over time.
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