Summary
Nintendopresident Shuntaro Furukawa states that he believes development of the company’s games will only become more time-consuming and challenging over the years. Though this is unfortunate news for those who were hoping to get moreMarioandZeldagames in a timely manner, at the very least, getting direct insight from a higher-up like Furukawa allows fans to get a glimpse of whereNintendomight be headed as it prepares to enter the next console generation.
Shuntaro Furukawa has been making a lot of headlines recently for sharing a bunch of notable information regarding the Switch and its upcoming successor. The Nintendo executive just confirmed on Twitter, for instance, that the companyplans to formally reveal the Nintendo Switch 2sometime this fiscal year. Exciting news for Nintendo fans aside, Furukawa shared even more interesting tidbits of information during Nintendo’s latest earnings call, when he was thoroughly quizzed by investors and shareholders. One particular set of comments that the executive made during these discussions, though, paints a bit of a worrying picture of the future for both Nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole.
As reported by Famitsuin a recent article covering the company’s latest earnings call,Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawastated that he believes it is “inevitable” that game development will become “even longer, more complex, and more sophisticated in the future.” He then elaborated on this point, expressing that Nintendo will continue to “work with developers that understand the brand” in order to garner more “human resources” that’ll aid the console manufacturer in future development efforts. This seems to indicate that, despite a greater need for more game devs going forward, it appears Nintendo will remain selective with the companies it chooses to partner with, as usual.
Nintendo May Make More Acquisitions in the Future to Ease Future Challenges in Game Development
However, Furukawa also made the surprising suggestion that Nintendo could make some mergers and acquisitions in the future to remedy the inevitable issue of more demanding game development. This would be a bit of an unexpected direction for the console manufacturer, asNintendo isn’t known for going on acquisition spreeslike its competitors Microsoft and Sony have. The company’s historically been more frugal when it comes to spending money on studio acquisitions, but if push comes to shove, it may become necessary in the future for Nintendo to acquire more development teams to aid with work on upcoming AAA titles, as Furukawa indicates.
Despite the wild success of the Switch, Nintendo will most likely face some challenges along the road to the launch of its next-generation console in 2025. TheSwitch 2 hardware specsreportedly leaked recently, and if they’re legitimate, they could indicate that the Switch successor will be a big leap in raw power over the company’s current-gen system. While the prospect of powerful Nintendo hardware may excite many fans, developing for a more demanding console may result in Nintendo struggling to keep up with increased budgets and development times, just like the rest of the gaming industry. Hopefully, though,Nintendowill be able to weather the storm that many other publishers have been facing recently.
