Satoru Iwata once spoke about his distaste for a very mobile-centric term, just as Nintendo got into the market. “I do not like to use the term ‘Free-to-play,’” he told Time. “I have come to realize that there is a degree of insincerity to consumers with this terminology, since so-called ‘Free-to-play’ should be referred to more accurately as ‘Free-to-start.’” It was an admirable stance, an attempt to be more transparent than most about what players were getting into.
Perhaps in deference to its late president, Nintendo still uses to ’free-to-start’ to describe its mobile games and, as we’ve mentioned elsewhere, those games haven’t really worked out. As those games have rolled out, each to less fanfare than the last, it’s become increasingly easy to connote anything Nintendo brands free-to-start as a lesser experience than the company’s usual creations. It’s also easy to attribute that to the business model. But I’m not sure that’s the root of the problem.
Source: IGN.com Satoru Iwata Wouldn't Have Made Nintendo Mobile Games Cheaper – He Would Have Made Them Better