Super Mario Run needs an internet connection to play, because piracy

Well, here's one thing you probably won't see in any ads for the upcoming Super Mario Run for iOS: it requires an always-on internet connection to play. Shigeru Miyamoto recently sat down with Mashable to chat about the game's development, and explained the decision as one made out of a desire to keep Nintendo software secure.

"For us, we view our software as being a very important asset for us. 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," Miyamoto said. "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. This is something that we want to continue to work on as we continue to develop the game."

If you're curious what Miyamoto means when he says that Nintendo wants to keep the modes functioning together, he claimed that at one point the company considered making story mode offline. However, "it actually complicates the connection back to the Toad Rally and Kingdom [Builder] modes. And because those two modes are relying on the network save, we had to integrate the World Tour mode as well."

When Mashable asked if, by "security," Miyamoto meant "piracy," he confirmed that was indeed the type of security he was referring to. Hopefully this doesn't make Super Mario Run a particularly data-heavy game. I'd hate to have a Mario game I couldn't play because I was out of gigabytes on my plan.

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