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Fire Emblem Heroes reveal shows Nintendo is going fully free-to-play

Gacha and key art implies Super Mario Run's model has been ditched

Fire Emblem Heroes reveal shows Nintendo is going fully free-to-play

Nintendo has revealed that its next mobile game in partnership with DeNA will be strategy-RPG Fire Emblem Heroes.

The game sees players collecting characters from across the Fire Emblem series and fighting with them in turn-based strategy battles. It is expected to release on both Android and iOS on February 2nd 2017.

Interestingly, it appears that the game will be entirely free-to-play. The announcement trailer shows players collecting heroes through gacha, and key art uses the phrase "free-to-play" rather than "free-to-start".

We've gacha now

It also looks like a game directly targeted for the Japan market. The UI in particular looks like a typical JRPG mobile game, and gacha mechanics are still more popular in Asia than the West.

Fire Emblem Heroes will be launched in 39 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, and mostly European and English-speaking countries.

Notable exclusions from the list include South Korea and China, where the game would likely perform best, but these may be added later.

Android users can pre-register for the game on the Google Play store. A pre-registration campaign is not available on the iOS App Store, despite the 20 million pre-registrations seen for Super Mario Run.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.