Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took some time to talk about how there is an "unavoidable" situation where game sequels take a longer time to come out.
The situation comes as technological leaps are becoming even greater and studios are taking more and more time to finish highly-anticipated sequels. This is something that has become even more noticeable in the Nintendo Switch generation.
Nintendo's Long Wait Between Sequels
(Photo : KAZUHIRO NOGI, AFP, Getty Images / Screenshot taken from official website)
One example is the releases of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom which were six years apart. And between the announcement of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the game's actual release in 2025 will be about eight years.
During a recent shareholder Q&A, Furukawa said that these things are unavoidable but also shared some steps that the studio is taking in order to address the issue. He noted that game development in recent years is " more prolonged, more complex, and more advanced," according to ComicBook.
Furukawa noted that in order to deal with the situation, they were continuously expanding their development resources and making the necessary investments.
While the Nintendo president did not go into detail about the issue, the development resources and investments that were mentioned seem to include spin-off games and other related projects.
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During the wait time between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there were still many games in the series that were released. These include Skyward Sword HD, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and Cadence of Hyrule.
What is worth noting is that all of these titles were developed in collaboration with outside studios, such as Tantalus Media, Omega Force, and Brace Yourself Games.
On the other hand, Metroid Dread was developed as part of a collaboration between Nintendo EPD and MercurySteam, and Iron Galaxy had hands-on work with Metroid Prime Remastered.
Advancements in Hardware
Nintendo senior managing executive officer and corporate director Shinya Takahashi also echoed Furukawa's stance on the wait time between game sequels. He said that software development cycles were becoming longer because of hardware advances, said NintendoLife.
Another franchise that has been affected by this is the Super Mario Bros. series as Super Mario Bros. Wonder was the "first new 2D Mario game in 11 years." Takahashi noted that while game releases were few and far between, Super Mario Bros. Wonder was under continuous development for nearly a decade.
The personnel revealed that the "long gap" was due to various initiatives and studies as well as the goal of encouraging as many people as possible to enjoy the titles. Takahashi also reiterated Nintendo's creative philosophy.
This is when they first think about creating entertainment that has never been done before in the video games industry. After that, they then made the project fun for everyone so that they would fall in love with the studio.
With everything taken into consideration, players should expect nothing much to change regarding the time that they need to wait for Nintendo to launch its games, according to TheGamer.
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