Nintendo Announces Super Mario Run Landing on Android, March 23rd

March 18, 2017 - Written By Joshua Swingle

A tweet sent out today by Nintendo America has confirmed the official release date for Super Mario Run on Android. Nintendo’s popular mobile Mario game was originally released back in December as an exclusive to Apple devices running iOS 8.0 or later, and was met with a mixed reception by users, with many claiming that the game was overpriced. Now, though, Nintendo is finally releasing the game on Android, with the specific date being announced as March 23.

It’s been known for some time now that Nintendo had plans to release the popular mobile game on Android, but was worried about the high level of piracy within the platform, hence the reason the release on the platform is so late when compared to iOS. March 23 will not only mark the launch of the game on Android, though, with Nintendo also releasing version 2.0 of the game, which should introduce some extra features, some of them possibly being antipiracy-related. The gaming company is yet to confirm what features or changes the update will introduce, though rumors point towards a number of new playable characters. As well as this, users of the demo version of the game are expected to have the chance to unlock a fourth playable world by completing one of Bowser’s challenges. Considering Nintendo is yet to confirm any of this, though, any kind of new features are possible. Currently, pricing of the Android version is yet to be officially confirmed, though it’s likely that the app will once again follow the model introduced on iOS, therefore allowing gamers to download a demo, with users then having to pay $9.99 later if they wish to unlock the complete game.

With the release date set for next Thursday, it won’t be too long before all the details of the update are announced by the company. Taking into consideration the game’s initial popularity on iOS, it’s likely Nintendo will see a significant spike in downloads over the coming weeks once the game is launched on Android. This, coupled with a big update to the game is sure to increase the number of sales coming from both iOS and Android significantly. It’ll remain to be seen how the latest update to the game will be received once it’s released, though Nintendo is surely aiming to please as many customers as possible.