Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said in an interview with the Nikkei portal that the company should focus on creating “new original games” in order to keep the gaming public interested in its products. The executive stressed, however, that he will continue to produce new titles for franchises already established, such as ‘ Super Mario ‘ or ‘ The Legend of Zelda ‘.
You may not have noticed, but it’s been a while since Nintendo released original games for any of its consoles : in the last 20 years, the company’s most memorable creations have been ‘Pikmin’ (2001), ‘Wii Sports’ ( 2005) and ‘Splatoon’ (2015) – all this, amidst ‘Zeldas’, ‘Marios’ and ‘Donkey Kongs’.
read more
- Nintendo Switch: Brazilians can now buy digital games through Nintendo’s online store
- Sold for R$ 3.76 million, ‘Super Mario Bros.’ cartridge it’s the most expensive in history
- Top speed: American breaks record in Mario Bros game
“With the increase in time spent staying at home, the meaning of ‘entertainment’ as a consumer item has expanded,” said Nintendo’s president, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic . “Games are not a necessity in life. In order for the consumer to choose their games in their finite time, they must be interesting. Competition is strong, and I’m not very optimistic. I’m studying various entertainment formats myself. In the future, we will focus on creating new original games as well as best sellers like ‘Mario’ and ‘Zelda’.”
With regard to hardware, however, Shuntaro Furukawa reinforced that Nintendo is always researching new devices: “We are always building new ideas for new consoles that the market may be waiting for, but there are also some things we can’t do now because of impediments to technology or costs,” he commented.
According to the executive, Nintendo’s hardware and software areas are close to each other, which facilitates the development of innovations such as the Nintendo Switch and innovative formats for presenting the company’s games: “Before we create a single piece of hardware, we have we prepare for years before, so we work non-stop. In the end, the deciding factor to market a product or not is whether it brings some new experience [to the consumer].”
Finally, Nintendo’s president praised Switch, the hybrid console the company launched in 2017, noting that it is still “in the middle” of its lifecycle and that it anticipates at least another four years of support.
Source: Nikkei (paywall)