In a recent Nintendo CEO Nikkei interview, Nintendo President, Shuntaro Furukawa, spoke with the Japanese publication about a number of things. The conversation was translated by NintendoEverything.com. They talked about the gaming market as a whole, Nintendo new IPs (intellectual properties), and evergreen franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing. He commented about the fierce competition in the modern gaming market since players have a finite amount of time for developers to fight for:
As we spend more time in our homes, we are becoming increasingly spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. For people to choose to play our games with their limited free time, the games must be interesting. Competition is fierce and we’re not looking at the current situation lightly. We are constantly looking out for new ideas and researching what we can utilize next. In future, we want to not only work on our staple series like Mario and Zelda but also work on new games and new series.
Not surprisingly, you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up for revivals of dormant franchises like F-Zero.
This doesn’t sound the best if you happen to be one of the fans who really want one of Nintendo’s dormant franchises to return, like F-Zero or Mother. His comments don’t sound like there is too much interest in reviving them, but this is Nintendo. You never quite know what they’re going to do. Most of their time and energy is being put into their mainstream juggernaut franchises as you’d expect, with a new IP popping up here and there once in a while, like ARMS. As a business, the bulk of their resources will naturally be focused where the most profit is.
The Hardware Side of Things
Though a lot of the Nintendo CEO Nikkei interview was focused on Nintendo new IPs and mainstay franchises, Shuntaro Furukawa did talk about hardware just a bit. He obviously didn’t say anything about a new Switch model or its successor, but he did touch on the hardware side of things a little bit:
We’re constantly thinking about ideas for new consoles, but many ideas simply aren’t feasible because of cost or limitations in technology. We devote a lot of resources into developing technology in case any of these ideas become feasible in future.
A global microchip shortage is still affecting businesses from automobile to electronics manufacturers.
He also took a moment to discuss the potential impacts the global microchip shortage may have on Nintendo in the future. For the time being, Nintendo is doing well on this front it seems.
We currently have enough semiconductors to tide us over with immediate Switch production term. Demand both in Japan and abroad has been very high since the beginning of the year, so there is a possibility we might not be able to meet the demand of all retailers at some point in future.
Future Development
President Shuntaro Furukawa also commented during the Nintendo CEO Nikkei interview on the company’s recent growth, thanks to the success of the Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. He says people are still spending more time at home than they used to, even though things have gotten a bit better since this time last year regarding the COVID19 pandemic.
It’s true that our recent growth has stemmed from the need for people to stay at home. Even though (Japan’s) state of emergency is over, people are spending more time at home than before. As games with long lifespans like Animal Crossing become more accepted, we believe this will have a significant impact on future development. We want to provide games that can allow communication between friends and families.
