"Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher"

Hedge fund manager and Nintendo share holder Seth Fischer has urged Nintendo to move into the smartphone market.

The Oasis Management founder said in a letter to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, as republished by The Wall Street Journal, that the platform holder is "well placed to make an immediate entry into mobile".

He added: "We believe Nintendo can create very profitable games based on in-game revenue models with the right development team. Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher.

"The same people who spent hours playing Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and Legend of Zelda as children are now a demographic whose engagement on the smartphone is valued by the market at well over $100bn."

Iwata famously pledged in January that solving the company’s recent woes is not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone”.