Summary
Nintendosays that long development times are “unavoidable” as technology improves and games become more advanced. This was in response to a shareholder during arecent Q&A, in which Nintendo higher-ups were asked if games likeSuper Mario Bros. Wondercould be made faster in the future.
In the Q&A, a shareholder highlighted that Super Mario Bros. Wonder was the first new 2DMariogame in 11 years. They say that it would be “nice to see shorter development cycles and games released regularly”, but Nintendo argues that this isn’t possible.
Nintendo Doesn’t Want To Rush Its Game Development Cycles
“Game development today is more prolonged, more complex, and more advanced,” says Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa. “That is unavoidable.”
However, senior managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi goes on to highlight that Nintendo is taking steps to keep development times as short as possible. He also argues in cases like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it isn’t just the development of the actual game that creates these large gaps between sequels.
“Whether titles take a long time or a short time to develop, we want to make games that are fun,” says Takahashi. “It is not as if Super Mario Bros. Wonder was under continuous development for nearly a decade. There was a long gap between the release of the previous title, New Super Mario Bros. U, and the current title because various initiatives and studies were made in the meantime.”
Executive officer Takashi Tezuka agrees. “To reiterate Nintendo’s creative philosophy, first we think about creating entertainment that has never been done before, regardless of whether it is a Mario series game or not,” he says. “Then we think about how we can make it fun for everyone so they fall in love with Nintendo.”
So, with this in mind, we shouldn’t expect much to change when it comes to how long we have to wait for Nintendo games to launch. In fact, we know that the company sometimes finishes games and then holds off on launching them, so it certainly doesn’t mind keeping fans waiting. So far, it appears to have done this withthe Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remakeandMetroid Prime Remastered.
