Miitomo

Miitomo was developed by Nintendo EPD, including several key production members of Tomodachi Life under the supervision of Ryutaro Takahashi and Yoshio Sakamoto. Miitomo's development team consisted of 50 employees in total—30 core developers and 20 additional backend and promotional staff. The title's conceptualization occurred around 2014 amid an internal company push to develop smartphone games, in light of increasing customer demand. Takahashi and Sakamoto discussed potential applications for Mii characters beyond traditional video games.

He became convinced that the Miis were versatile enough to have a place in a communication-centered smartphone service; the Miitomo team worked towards developing a platform geared to as large a demographic as possible. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé stated in an interview that Miitomo intentionally prioritizes communication with solely friends to maintain a pleasant user experience. He also viewed Miitomo as a means for customers to intimately re-engage with Nintendo, particularly through the app's My Nintendo integration.

Miitomo garnered "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.

Miitomo's implementation of in-app purchases was commended as non-intrusive and largely secondary to the core gameplay experience. Critics appreciated that virtual currency and cosmetics could be accumulated through other means, though Jack Fennimore of The UWM Post criticized the Miitomo Drop minigame as mechanically frustrating and too reliant on luck. Cassidee Moser of Shacknews had negative opinions on the in-app purchases, calling Miitomo a "hollow microtransaction generator" lacking in innovation, a quality she felt was uncharacteristic for a Nintendo product.