Super Mario will land in App store on December 15, Internet Connection Requires Due to Piracy Concerns

Requires a Persistent Internet Connection Due to Piracy Concerns

We're less than a week away from the big Super Mario Run launch on the iOS platform and the series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, was kind enough to share some previously unknown details about the upcoming game.

During an interview with Mashable, Miyamoto has revealed the Super Mario Run will require a persistent Internet connection in order to play. This means that you must be connected to the Internet during your playing session, otherwise the game will not work.

Super Mario Run will launch in about 150 countries on December 15, but it will only be available on iOS devices. Nintendo fans will be able to purchase the game for $9.99 via App Store. It's also worth mentioning that an Android version of the game will be launched next year.

If you wonder why Nintendo has decided to launch Super Mario Run on the iOS platform initially, the answer is pretty simple: piracy.

“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,” explains Shigeru Miyamoto.

Nintendo's official went on to explain that when he's saying “security,” he's actually referring to the risk of piracy. Since the game won't be available just in those countries where Nintendo is officially selling its products, it would be very hard to control the level of piracy.

Although Nintendo wanted to make the story mode playable offline, the Japanese company said it was overly complicated to make it work correctly since the other two modes, Toad Rally and Kingdom, have been specifically designed to work online.

So, because these two modes are also relying on the network save, Nintendo had to integrate the World Tour mode as well, which means all three modes included in Super Mario Run will require persistent Internet connection.