The creator of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto, has confirmed that Nintendo’s upcoming iPhone game, Super Mario Run, will only function when connected to the internet.
When speaking to Mashable, Miyamoto cited concerns over piracy as the reason for the restriction.
“For us, we view our software as being a very important asset for us,” he said. “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.”
“Security”, in this instance, refers to players downloading and playing the game illegally.
“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,” continued Miyamoto. “This is something that we want to continue to work on as we continue to develop the game.”
The Mario developer references these security worries as the reason for Run’s iOS (rather than Android) debut. After all it’s generally easier for Android users to install unauthenticated content on their devices, though it is also possible on iPhones.
The team behind Super Mario Run did consider allowing the game’s story mode, “World Tour”, to be played offline, but according to Miyamoto this conflicted with the network-save function throughout the rest of the game.
We don’t see why a save function which uploads the user’s status when a network connection becomes available is such a problem for a team of talented engineers, though.
Super Mario Run hops, skips, and double-jumps onto iOS devices on December 15, and will cost £7.99 in the UK.
