Whenever Nintendo gets around to developing new first-party titles, it won’t be like it was in the past. The company is generally not extremely fast with a lot of its games, most notably taking six years to develop The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom after Breath of the Wild‘s impressive launch. With a new console coming soon, that might be the new standard for the gaming titan.
Nintendo hasn’t made a lot of first-party titles in a long time. In the last 10 months, there have been just a few: Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Princess Peach Showtime, and Pikmin 4. Once they stop pushing remakes and third-party games, things won’t speed back up. They might slow down even further according to a new report.
Nintendo President Confirms Slower Development Times
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President Shuntaro Furukawa, per a report from Famitsu (which was translated from Japanese into English), confirms that the company believes it is inevitable that games will have long development times following 2024. With the next console supposedly being much more powerful, it seems as if the games it features will be more complex and require more time before release.
The report also said that the company might consider outsourcing some help to speed this up, but Nintendo is notorious for generally not working with other companies. It has a set way of doing things and has for a long time, so any company that signed on to help would need to adapt. Generally speaking, first-party titles in the Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, and other franchises have been exclusively developed by Nintendo.
These games have never really come quickly, though. As mentioned, it was six years between Zelda titles. There hasn’t been a 3D Mario game since Mario Odyssey in 2017. As for the 2D side-scrolling games, it was four years between New Super Mario Bros. Deluxe U and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. With the next console’s purported power, players might long for the days of four-year gaps.
Backward Compatibility Possible For Next Nintendo Console
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All the above information was revealed after an investor’s Q&A following the most recent financial results briefing. A slowed-down development schedule wasn’t the only thing confirmed about the future, though. Shuntaro Furukawa also confirmed a key feature for the Switch 2, which is going to be announced by next April.
Nintendo accounts will translate between consoles. This was designed to keep a strong relationship with customers. If players can keep their information all together across multiple consoles, they’re more likely to keep buying games and consoles. This also means that backward compatibility is very likely, even though it was always a strong possibility.
Most new consoles have some form of backward compatibility. A big reason for this is that there’s always a buffer period where players don’t have the newest console and games get developed for both. Even now, a few years after the debut of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, a lot of those titles are not next-gen exclusives. Expect Nintendo to do the same for however long.
And by keeping the Nintendo accounts for the next console, they’ve ensured that players can get those old games and play them on the Switch 2. Digital downloads are much more viable now knowing that they can be played through whatever the next platform is. Physical copies will last forever, but this does extend the viability and access time for digital games.
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