Nintendois on a roll. That might sound like a redundant thing to say as Nintendo is almost always on a roll in some fashion, but this feels different. Nintendo feels bigger and more successful than it ever has before, and there are a few reasons for that. Yes, it’s the success of theSwitchand the launch of games that will go down as some of the best ever, but the different approach to the work behind the scenes has resulted in Nintendo enjoying one of the best periods in its entire history.
The key ingredient to Nintendo’s recent success is giving everyone all the time they need to work on a project. The first sign of this approach was revealed whenEiji Aonuma discussed the year of polishhe and the team behindTears of the Kingdomapplied to the latest Zelda game. Ahead of its launch last summer, the producer explained that it had technically been finished for a year, and the 12 months prior to its release were spent squashing bugs and making sure it was as perfect as possible.
That same approach has been applied toSuper Mario Bros. Wonder. The first true reimagining of the 2D Mario formula for over a decade, all signs point to Wonder being a massive success. A huge part of that is because the developers weren’t given a deadline. That allowed them to take all the time they needed to explore literally thousands of ideas, hence why Wonder features so many elements never seen before in a Mario game. A stark difference when compared toGame Freak’s most recentPokemongames. Even though they technically fall under the Nintendo umbrella, the quality of the latest Pokemon games has suffered, seemingly as The Pokemon Company has rushed to get them released.
The Switch itself even falls under Nintendo’s new let them cook mentality, and quite rightly as nailing whatever comes next is going to be one of the most important hardware transitions in Nintendo history. The past dictates that the Switch’s time in the sun should be over by now, but Nintendo isn’t having it. More than 125 million people own a Switch, and the console and its games continue to break all sorts of sales records. Despite rumors the Switch 2 will be here by this time next year, Nintendo is saying nothing, and why should it? Just because a console’s lifecycle is usually shorter than this doesn’t mean that norm can’t change. Whatever Nintendo’s cooking up on the hardware side of things right now, you know it’s going to be worth the wait.
My hope is that other studios look at the stellar work Nintendo has been doing recently and take away the same thing that I have from it. That the key is taking time over a project rather than rushing something out, potentially in a broken state, so that you can start working on whatever’s next. Unfortunately, the trend of Nintendo taking time with its projects has run parallel to others demonstrating the exact opposite. Releasing a game the second it’s “ready” and then fixing it afterwards. Or in some more dire cases, kicking a game out the door when it’s not ready because bosses who had no part in its actual creation were sick of waiting.
Not everyone has the same luxuries as Nintendo for a number of different reasons. First off, those aforementioned bosses calling the shots don’t understand what it takes to make a video game, especially in 2023. Their job is to make sure the company makes money, and if that means releasing a game when it’s not finished, despite what developers attempt to tell them, so be it. Nintendo isn’t run by people like that. It’s run by people who have been there for decades as opposed to a CEO who has been there for three years and will likely be replaced within the next two.
There are also studios that simply can’t afford to do that. Nintendo has the luxury of being able to pay a team working on a Mario or a Zelda for an additional year without having to worry about its bottom line. Telling a smaller studio that it will need to find cash to pay employees for an extra 12 months could well lead to job cuts – something the industry definitely doesn’t need more of right now – and potentially even bankruptcy. If the choice is to release the game and make some money now, or keep tweaking and potentially go under, well, that’s no choice at all.
Last but not least, most Nintendo studios aren’t under pressure to move on to the next game right away. Tears of the Kingdom isn’t getting DLC, and while I’m sure Aonuma and the gang have plenty of ideas when it comes to Link’s future, there’s not even as much as a vague promise as to when we’ll be getting more Zelda. The same applies to Mario. You’ll get Wonder in a few days and then you’ll wait until Nintendo is good and ready to give you more. Elsewhere in the video game world,CDPR confirmed Cyberpunk 2before Phantom Liberty had even released,Insomniac revealed Wolverine planson the same night as its firstSpider-Man 2teaser, andBethesdaannouncedThe Elder Scrolls 6before any of us really knew whatStarfieldeven was.
