Always weighing up options

We suspect a common complaint for some with Nintendo's current and confirmed lineup of titles is the absence of particular cherished and relatively under-served franchises. Examples such as Star Fox, F-Zero and 1080° are notable examples, as they enjoyed various entries on previous systems yet have been posted largely missing in the most recent generation of systems.

While fan desire is one thing, Nintendo clearly considers how best to dedicate its resources to, ultimately, achieving commercial success with its releases. There's also the matter of utilising the strengths of the company's development teams, and the more years that pass by without new entries the more likely it is that existing team members won't have direct experiences of these franchises; there's a danger of new titles not meeting expected standards, as a result. Speaking to Official Nintendo Magazine, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that utilising development teams effectively is a part of the challenge when planning projects, while the staff are naturally keen on working on familiar and popular franchises.

There are franchises where you would want to put in time and the energy because if you don’t spend enough time and energy on it, it could impact the value of the franchise and the popularity of the franchise. Certainly, with something like Star Fox, we’ve released additional games in the series. I guess with our internal teams in particular, they tend to gravitate more towards bigger franchises… games like the Marios and Zeldas.

For us, it’s less about choosing which franchise we’re going to create and more about choosing what type of game style we want to create and what type of new experience we’re creating and that’s limited internally by the number of different teams who can create those ideas.

Where do you stand on Nintendo's current lineup and the brands being used. Do you feel the company needs to utilise more of its existing IPs, or do you agree with its current approach on the Wii U and 3DS? Let us know in the comments below.

[source officialnintendomagazine.co.uk, via nintendoeverything.com]