Games are getting bigger, and if you’re wondering what Nintendo is going to do about longer development cycles, the company’s president says it’s “inevitable.” In a recent Q&A with shareholders, Shuntaro Furukawa mentioned that game development today is “longer, more complex, and more advanced,” and that to address this, Nintendo must continually expand its “development resources” and make “necessary investments.”
Nintendo Senior Executive Officer and Corporate Director Shinya Takahashi reiterated that it is “inevitable” for software development cycles to increase as hardware advances, but at the same time he said that Nintendo is “successful” in its efforts to shorten the overall development cycle by “continuously improving the development environment”.
This similar question refers to how Super Mario Bros. Amazing was “the first new 2D Mario game in 11 years” and despite such a long gap between releases, according to Takahashi “Super Mario Bros. Wonder has been in continuous development for nearly a decade”. The “long gap between” releases was due to various initiatives and research.
While this is the case with the latest Mario game, Nintendo has gone through some incredibly long development cycles this generation with games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and upcoming releases Metroid Prime 4: Beyondwas even rebooted at one point. This follows Furukawa’s comments on AI, mentioning how it is “open to technological developments” but will continue to provide value “that cannot be created by technology alone”.
