Super Mario Run will come to Android in March

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As we’ve known for a while, Super Mario Run is coming to Android after an exclusive stint on iOS.

It’s… going to be a while, though.

According to a tweet from Nintendo’s Japanese Twitter account, Mario won’t auto-run his way across Android screens until sometime in March.

Here’s the tweet:

Which translates, roughly, into:

The Android version of “Super Mario Run” will be delivered in March 2017. Currently, Google Play is accepting signups to inform you of when delivery begins. Please sign up.

So, why the delays?

It’s likely more of a contractual thing than a technical one. Super Mario Run was built on Unity, a game engine that’s built with relatively simple platform-to-platform porting in mind. While porting always introduces plenty of challenges, it’s not like they’re rebuilding the game from scratch here. Meanwhile, a launch window of March would mean Mario Run was on iOS exclusively for roughly 3 months.

But before you toss out your Android device in order to get all of Nintendo’s mobile wares first, a heads up: it looks like Nintendo is trying to spread the love a bit. Its new Fire Emblem title, for example, will hit Android first.