Miitomo

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About

Miitomo is a free-to-play social networking application developed by Nintendo for Android and iOS. The app allows players to converse using Miis, Nintendo's avatars, by having their Mii ask them questions and then the Mii repeats the answers when it is asked by another player's Mii. It is Nintendo's first mobile app.

History

Miitomo was revealed on October 29th, 2015, during a briefing for investors in Tokyo. It was described as a free-to-play social networking app which is ideal for people who are hesitant to reveal information about themselves to others by having the Mii ask the questions and then relay the answers to their friends. It was originally slated for a Fall 2015 launch,^[1] but the release was delayed, and the app came out on March 17th, 2016 for Japanese users,^[2] and March 31st in the U.S. and UK. ^[3]

Features

Users create a character called a Mii, based on the long-time use of personalized characters across Nintendo's multiplayer platforms. Users are able to answer questions their Mii gives them, dress up their Mii, take pictures of their Mii, play minigames, add friends through Facebook, Twitter, and close-range technology; and comment on friend's pictures and answers to questions.

Users earn coins by inviting and paying attention to their friends and use them on clothing; the coins are also available for in-app purchase. Points can be earned by answering questions and connecting the app to external social media profiles; sweets are used to feed to friends to unlock their answers to questions. In addition, there are minigames that can only be played with tickets, through which users can also earn special clothing items.^[5] Users can also place their Miis on a series of backgrounds and take a "Miifoto," which they can then publish to social media.

Reception

Upon its release in Japan, Miitomo was downloaded over one million times in the first three days after its launch, overtaking Line, a messaging app, as the most downloaded app ever in Japan.^[4] By April 4th, it had been downloaded more than 3 million times worldwide, becoming the top free app in the iOS app store.^[7] According to Trendinalia USA, mentions of the app trended on Twitter the day after its release, and on Facebook over 120,000 were talking about the app.

Reviews of the app were mixed – Eurogamer said that the experience could be "sterile" but that there was "joy to be had."^[5] Reviewers at Gamasutra said that they became "obsessed" the more they played with the app.^[4] On Gamerankings, the game had earned a 4 out of 5 with two rankings as of April 4th, 2016.^[11]