We're Not Trying To Be The Next Disney, Says Nintendo President

'deeply immersive worlds' cries in legend of zelda

It don’t think it matters much as consumer, and it ain’t a bad thing neither.

If anything, Disney tried to be like Nintendo as the stated aim for Epic Mickey was to rival Mario as a contender for video game icon.

Thank you Nintendo, very cool.

"...it's currently enjoying what can only be described as a 'high point' in its history, having gobbled up the likes of Star Wars, Marvel and 21st Century Fox"

You forgot Pixar, Steve Jobs sold Pixar to Disney and became the largest shareholder at Disney.

If Steve Jobs is still alive, Apple Plus TV's content will be supplied by Disney.

that's why your A++ titles mario is still around 60$/€... you're almost same as Disney. We'll see

Nintendo is the Disney of the gaming world. You can ask someone to name a cartoon character and more than likely it'll be a Disney character (for those who said Bugs Bunny stop it you wascals you're wuining my theowy!). Same for gaming, he or she is playing the Nintendo even if it's a Playstation.

'For me, Mr. Furukawa is a bridge creating the connection from the past to our future. Always keeping us focused on our north star to be a company deeply devoted to originality while constantly exploring new opportunities to share our iconic characters and our deeply immersive worlds with everyone around the world'

Or buying out other peoples buisnesses like Disney do, I think you get it right nintendo.

I think a poll was done in either the late 80’s or early 90’s on whether or not Mario was more familiar than Mickey Mouse to American kids. Mario came out on top. (Also, a similar poll was done with Sonic, and Sonic won against Mickey as well. These are my reasons why Mickey Mouse should be a guest character in SSBU).

I hope Nintendo doesn’t turn into Disney. Disney was once an innovator but now they’ve turned to mostly churning out lots of formulaic films... though Pixar still puts out some good stuff

Whatever buisness decisions Nintendo make.

As long as they stay Nintendo, and make their first party games with their official Nintendo quality, then I'm happy.

@GameOtaku : When we were kids, our mothers/aunties/grandparents etc. would describe cartoons as "mickeys" (which is a common general term for cartoons among older Turks in my experience).

The irony is that most of the cartoons that we watched were cheap VHSes containing shorts in the public domain (many of which would cause offense today). It's actually quite astounding that they were still readily available throughout the 90s.

I only owned very, very few licensed videos (I recall Dr. Seuss, Mr. Men, Flintstones, Jetsons, and Paddington Bear tapes), and not a single "mickey" film.

Business-wise, Nintendo doesn't have a lot in common with Disney. To me, Nintendo's more like Disney in terms of the content they create (largely family friendly, universally appealing, high standards of quality, iconic characters, and the list goes on and on). And honestly, that's the content I love to see from both companies, so I'm all for that. Let's just hope Nintendo doesn't have a "live-action remake" phase like Disney is currently having...

Would not want Nintendo to become more like disney. As disney content sometimes drive me crazy with some of their current ideas

Disney is the EA of Hollywood. Creatively bankrupt corporate hucksters, who care more about positive PR in California than they care about the art. Nintendo are the creative leaders of their industry.
There is no comparison.

Nintendo operates as an independent company with a core identity. Literally everything they do is in support of that identity. Disney is a global IP clearinghouse. There's no overlap.

@EasyDaRon The main point of Mario Odyssey was a game design idea: Mario could throw his hat on enemies to take control of them and have different way of controls. That's creative game design. But people are too in the late-capitalism mindset and blind by the name of the IP.

If Nintendo were to ever sell out to Disney or Apple, then I'll be done with gaming period.

I think it would be flattering to be compared to Disney.
That's if your a business of course.

Good, I wouldn't want Nintendo to become like Disney, a money grubbing shadow of its former self, with all the resources and none of the talent. All the dirty business practices and attempts at monopolies and a total disconnect from their fans.

@Gwynbleidd what’s there to understand?
Nintendo have some of the most known IPs in the world, a theme park is a great way to earn money on those IPs, teaming up with Universal promises the rides will be great as well

Thank god. Disney (shudder)

Good, Disney is a shell of its former self. Now they are trying so hard to pander to the feminists.

As crazy as disney is in the movie business right now... they have the best theme parks ever, like jesus christ its good. I would be fine with copying disney when building mario land

Of course Nintendo isn't trying to emulate Disney's business model....doing so requires more money than an Incan golden god.

That being said, the only thing I got out of this interview is that Doug Bowser is an even better BSer than Reggie. That's a beautifully poetic metaphor to bridges, and north stars, and futures, and keeping the company devoted to originality when describing a guy that's had the job for 14 months.....

@Silly_G
My folks didn't have a replacement word for cartoons but when it came to games it was always a "Nintendo". Playing Tiger handheld it was a Nintendo, playing a PlayStation at a demo kiosk I was playing a Nintendo. I swear it was almost as bad as the teachers at school saying Pokeman instead of Mon and they were the ones who wanted us to learn to pronounce words correctly? (There's no A in Pokemon! Arrrrgh)

The Disney disdain in this comment section (and in general) always makes me chuckle, lol

But in all seriousness, I would have never even made that leap. Though there are some similarities between the two.

1)Both strive to be family-friendly and inclusive (but not always perfect in that respect).

2)They're both extremely protective over their properties and how they are portrayed

3) Even on their worse days, their bread and butter products tend to be miles ahead of others that are similar

Love to hear that. Disney is the absolute worst.

@Alucard83 don't forget Zelda..
with somehow the port of the last gen Zelda costs more then most new Nintendo games

zelda twilight princess and breath of the wild still costing as they did when they were new

@EasyDaRon Breath of the Wild was a completely gameplay redesign, Splatoon, Arms and more entirely new IPs were created with ideas never seen in gaming before, Odyssey went back to try and modernise the old Mario playstyle for a modern era, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 basically changed every aspect of the first game to try and push the series forwards, etc. Not every game needs to innovate the field of gaming, but I'd say they've probably had the highest percentage of any company that has.

And sure Kirby and Pokemon play it safe, but neither of those are made by Nintendo proper. Plus, Kirby alternates between experimental games (Kirby Clash literally just released) and traditional game.

@EasyDaRon Of all the major publishers Nintendo’s titles have been the most innovative far and away. Arms, Ring Fit, Labo, Splatoon, Mario Odyssey, Wonderful 101, Captain Toad to name a few. They do release rather formulaic titles too, which isn’t a bad thing, like Mario Kart or Smash Bros. It’s just nice to have a mix

@Aronin So Mickey should be a guest character because he’s LESS popular than Mario and Sonic...?

Pretty much Nintendo has always been compared to Disney.
I do recall EGM even comparing them in 1993, when speaking of Nintendo's family-friendly (something like "they only make PG games") stance in anticipation, as soon as it was announced, that the release of home versions of Mortal Kombat was going to change things, and indeed it did.
(even Disney had subsidiary companies to release more mature movies while they kept their main brand clean, they couldn't completely ignore that money)

It's more likely Disney would buy Nintendo to add to its portfolio.
🤑

@Dezzy In all fairness, isn't pretty much all of Hollywood a collection of "creatively bankrupt corporate hucksters, who care more about positive PR in California than they care about the art"?

If nintendo wanted to be like Disney, they would have gobbled up software companies when they were in financial trouble. Like when Capcom was in trouble. Nintendo could have bought them and kept all their IP's but did not. They run their own right ship and that is a good thing.

"We're not trying to be the next Disney"
Famous last words before a company gets absorbed into the never-ending mass know as Disney.

@Dakotastomp @zool
Disney's not interested in video games at all, other than licensing out their IPs to companies that make 'em. Disney is planning to sell off FoxNext (which they gained from the Fox buyout) as they don't want another Disney Interactive on their hands.

@zool Knowing Disney's recent criteria, it'll never happen Nintendo is untouchable.

Well nintendo censors like disney but they don't have much else in common.

@Toy_Link Good, because if their games were anything like their current output of movies, they'd be homogenized, safe and cutesy without the charm like they had back in the 90's.

@GameOtaku I think that only works with the mario gang and pokemon tbh. Most people in my experience dont know link, samus, etc. But then again who tf knows who Nathan Drake, Kratos, Mastercheif etc are? At least for the non gamer.

@Walumeme never say never

Nintendo has been working with Disney seens the 60's, Disney is a monopoly. It would take a century just to build the kind of coffers Disney has and Disney will still grow in that time. You can say Nintendo has a family friendly image like Disney portrays but Nintendo is run by the Yakuza and has laundered money for years. Gunpei Yokoi was a hit by the Yakuza after losing all that money with the Virtual Boy.

That's great. Disney sucks

Once upon a time, such a comparison would be a grand compliment. These days, its a sly insult.

@Severian Disney's had vg long before Epic Mickey. And Mickey is still an enduring, if diminished mascot. Their games are pretty mediocre though.

@Zorox88 Great bait mate I give it 8/8.
You're going to need proof before bringing that hot take up on here.

@Tempestryke

Of course they have made games before Mario, but my post references the words here of Warren Spector in EGM stated in Eurogamer:

“ Not long after, it was rumoured - notably in American gaming magazine EGM - that Spector was working on a Mickey Mouse platform game intended to rival Mario.”

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/spector-making-epic-mickey-for-wii

@UmbreonsPapa Nothing family friendly about Disney anymore, they don't even try, and being "inclusive" only makes them even more anti-family and unsuitable for children. Disney started being openly SJW in the 90s, though most people don't know about it. If it was not for the alternative media on the internet during the last 17 years or so, most people still won't know. Some of their cartoons in the 80s and 90s, like the Gargoyles and the Wuzzles were pretty much their early experiments on indoctrinating children with the SJW plague, which they do now openly in all their shows and movies.

Disney= SJW now, and like all SJW , they destroy everything they touch, look at how they destroyed the Star Wars franchise, look at at how they destroyed Marvel Comics, though in the case of Marvel Comics it was already going down hill, since the early-mid 90s.

@Toy_Link Disney are about to launch their own streaming TV channel and their new Lady and the Tramp movie will be screened there first. So they are branching out into new territories.

They have the resources to make a bid for Nintendo if they want to and although I'm sure Nintendo would try and fight back, share holders could be tempted.
Universal Parks have Marvel themed rides and Disney now own Marvel. Universal are building Nintendo themed rides, so who knows.

Nintendo is vulnerable in that they only have one product, games. Gaming to Sony, Microsoft or Disney is just another string to their now.

When it comes to the copyright issue.

Nintendo is very much like Disney.

@zool
Iger has frequently said time and time again that the company “is not interested in publishing” video games and has even admitted to being bad at the business. And while Iger does lie a lot, judging ny the company’s actions last few years (closing Disney Interactive, selling FoxNext, closing Lucasarts, etc.). I think it’s quite clear that they prefer licensing out their IPs than making it themselves.

“Universal Parks have Marvel themed rides and Disney now own Marvel. Universal are building Nintendo themed rides, so who knows.”
If being at Universal is a sign that Disney will acquire it someday than MIB, Bourne Idenity, Popeye, Dr. Seuss, Jurassic Park, and King Kong should already be owned by them!

Yeah. Please don’t ever be anything like Disney. I love Nintendo for being Nintendo.

@Toy_Link That's what companies do say, they keep the lid on things, otherwise it could affect share prices.

That said, I do think Disney is more interested in its new streaming channel and acquiring new content for that. But streaming games could be another avenue for them in the future and they would want to acquire a games company.

Either way Mario and co. will always be here one way or another and the Nintendo name will still be used, it's a trusted established brand.