Nintendo says it hasn't really changed its approach to first-party games in 39 years and that's why more people are "playing and enjoying our games"

Nov. 6, 2024

Good job, Nintendo

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Nintendo is a slow-moving beast. Just ask its diehard fans, who have been waiting nearly a decade for the Switch successor to stop being a faraway dream and start being something they can use to playXenoblade Chronicles. But Nintendo says being antiquated is a good thing and, more than that, it’s a strategy.

In atranslated versionof Nintendo’s second quarter financial report, president Shuntaro Furukawa credits Nintendo’s ability to curate an image with its increasing success. Decades ago, first-party titles like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda for NES helped establish Nintendo as the go-to video game company for cerebral fantasy games. That association hasn’t changed much in the 39 years since the NES was first introduced to the U.S. market, and Furukawa is proud of that.

“We believe that the growth of Nintendo IP has been due more than anything else to the many people around the world playing and enjoying our games,” Furukawa says. “Nintendo has carefully crafted each title” — like Super Mario Party Jamboree, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon 3 — “to align with the characteristics of the IP,” he continues. “This approach to software development has remained consistent since we first developed titles for Nintendo Entertainment System.”

That said, Nintendo is open tosomechange. Particularly, when it comes to important matters — roller coasters and stuff

“In recent years we have been expanding Nintendo IP in a wide range of fields such as visual content, theme parks, mobile apps, and merchandise,” Furukawa says. “These initiatives aim to create continuous touchpoints with not only current Nintendo game players, but also those who are taking a break from games.” More Tanooki Mario plushes may not solve fans' need for theSwitch 2, Furukawa, but at least it’s something.

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Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.

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