Nintendo is a highly successful, world-renowned company, with a big stable of iconic franchises. But like any company in entertainment, Nintendo faces its own set of challenges, too. One of these, according to Dr. Serkan Toto of research group Kantan Games, is that Nintendo needs to keep coming up with new ideas, or else it runs the risk of becoming “stale.”
“The one risk is that at some point in time, people could grow tired of the same IPs that Nintendo produces games around,” Toto told CNBC.
He said Nintendo’s top franchises are Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon, and beyond those, Nintendo also has a “treasure trove of IPs.” But in 2036, or 2046, will people still care about those big three?
“Everybody is happy with these IPs … But what about 10 years in the future, or 20 years in the future? So Nintendo, I think, at some point, has to come up with new IPs, new ideas, in terms of characters, in terms of new worlds, because there is a certain risk that things might become a little bit stale,” he said.
Nintendo has made strides for new IP, with a high-profile example being the Splatoon series. Drag X Drive for the Switch 2 was also an example of a new idea, while Donkey Kong Bananza was a reinvention of sorts for the series.
The challenge of coming up with new ideas is not unique to Nintendo. Plenty of other game studios face the same challenges. For many companies, they try to strike a balance between preserving popular franchises and investing in something new. Ubisoft, for example, recently said it has “several new IPs” in the works, alongside a number of sequels to its popular games.
Investing in new IPs is costly, and returns are not always guaranteed. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida recently talked about how God of War developer Santa Monica Studio spent more than $25 million on a new IP before the studio pulled the plug.
Nintendo is riding high right now thanks in part to the success of the Switch 2, and a pair of high-profile Switch 2 exclusives, Pokemon Winds and Waves, were just announced for 2027.
