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My primary phone is an Android phone and now that Super Mario Run is available, I downloaded and purchased there. But I happen to have an iPod as well but didn't purchase since I know Android was coming. I don't want to buy on both if I don't have to since I'll only be able to play it on my iPod if I'm on wifi anyway.

Will I have to pay for it separately on my iPod if I want access to paid features? Or is there a way to unlock it since I already purchased it on Android? Or am I out of luck and will have to pay for it there too?

I know I can "restore" the purchase on other Android devices, I just tried and it worked. Attempting to do the same on my iPod doesn't work. It looks like it's trying to check my iTunes account to see if I purchased there.

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Tapping the Information button on the purchase screen gave the fine print, including this:

Note: You can transfer your user data between different types of devices as long as you link Super Mario Run to your Nintendo Account. However, if you change device platforms, you will need to repurchase the game on the new platform to unlock all the content again.

So, no. You would need to fork over another $10 to unlock all of Super Mario Run on the other ecosystem.

This is common among multi-platform mobile apps, likely due to Apple and Google not wanting to work out some deal to share their cut of all sales.

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    Ugh, well that's too bad. At least I know now that I can remove it from my iPod now as I won't be playing it much there. Thanks for pointing that out.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 7:12
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    On one hand, I understand the frustration. On the other, when I buy a digital PS4 game I expect to be able to play it in ANY PS4 but not in an Xbox One or Nintendo 3DS, even if the game exists for those platforms...
    – xDaizu
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 11:01
  • Not only (not so much) that tehy do not want to share - but that they both have separate platforms and little incentive to invest into (possibly significant) development expenses without even significant pressure to do so. It likely is a rare enough case to not matter to most people.
    – TomTom
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 14:49
  • I don't know, maybe I'm spoiled with things like Plex where you purchased it for your account, not the platform you're on. One would hope that Nintendo with its relatively new global account system would allow for that in this day and age. This might say a lot to whether or not previous virtual console games will just be granted to you when they inevitably come to Switch if you had purchased them on Wii (U) or 3DS. Outlook doesn't look too good, even if it is within their own ecosystem.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 15:05
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    @JeffMercado But you aren't purchasing it through Nintendo. You're buying it from Google (or Apple), who take a 30% cut before sending the remainder to Nintendo. There are a lot of business concerns which affect their mobile apps, not to mention some kind of third-party platform cross-buy system would open up the potential of exploitation to bypass payment.
    – Gwellin
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 15:09

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