Nintendo's shorter game development cycle is one of the smartest things I've heard in years
Blog Andrew Joseph 09 Jul , 2025 0
In 2014, Nintendo faced financial shortages when the Wii U performed seriously underperformed. To avoid layoffs, then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that he would reduce his salary by 50% to avoid layoffs. The decision saved thousands of jobs and Nintendo employees were able to move forward to help develop the next console: the Nintendo Switch, the company's most successful home console ever. It's a legendary moment in the history of the gaming industry, which highlights Nintendo's clear approach in times of crisis. About a decade later, Nintendo's new president, Shuntaro Furukawa, has provided his own pragmatic solution to face the turmoil currently swelling in the gaming industry.
most Recent Q&A with investors To discuss the latest quarterly finances, investors told Furukawa that they were worried that the performance of the Nintendo Switch 2 would improve, which would lead to increased development time for the game, which in turn would bring Nintendo's development costs. This is an effective concern – improving performance offers opportunities for more detailed graphics, deeper gaming systems and more ambitious campaign designs, all of which take longer to create. Just check out the 13-year wait between Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto 6 to see how the technology changes have caused the game to take longer.
But these extended schedules are not only bad for fans who have to wait for ridiculous time to get a sequel to their favorite game. As the game develops longer and longer, the budget has risen. And, when a battle costs hundreds of millions of dollars and takes nine years to achieve its lofty financial goals, redundancy will soon follow. After nearly a decade of developments in Suicide Squad: Kill Justice League finally ended in 2024, the game started with frigid comments and medium sales. As a result, Rocksteady suffered heavy layoffs. Warner Bros. Games, the studio's parent company, specifically cites the $200 million loss caused by suicide squad when discussing its horrible financial situation – a situation that led to the closure of studios like Monolith Productions.
Suicide Squad: Kill Justice League. Image source: WB Games, RocksteadyFurukawa returns to the responses about Nintendo investors and responds so wisely, it’s hard to believe that more video game CEOs aren’t saying the same thing.
“Recent gaming software development has become larger in scale and lasts longer, thus increasing development costs,” he said. “The gaming business has been a high-risk business and we recognize that development costs are increasing this risk.” To mitigate this, he explained that Nintendo is designing various methods to keep our traditional approaches creating games at a growing scale and development time… We also believe that gaming software can be developed using shorter development periods, and these processes still give consumers a new feeling. ”
In short, Furukawa said that not only will Nintendo try to maintain its current development schedule, but it has also found ways to make possible shorter development times and the same appeal for Nintendo fans.
Then, the question is whether Nintendo can make those two promises, especially given that the company's development schedule for the largest games seems to be longer. But while it's still too early in the Switch 2 era, it's safe to know that there are positive signs in Nintendo's history.
As I have already pointed out, Nintendo is very unaffected by the lengthy development schedule. Each new Zelda game legend takes longer than the previous one. It took Nintendo six years to follow the breathing in the wild with the tears of the kingdom. Meanwhile, everyone is still waiting for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, thanks to the announcement of release later in 2025 eight years later.
But Furukawa probably didn't talk about the release of Zelda and Metroid, as he came up with the idea of making smaller games with a shorter development time. Instead, he might refer to games like Mario Party, which may not have the big-name appeal of Mainline Zelda, but it is just as important to Nintendo. Don't believe me? Consider last year's Mario Party Jamboree 2.16 million units sold. Only 570,000 less Compared to the tears of “The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom 21.73 million”. In addition, since Mario Party 9 in 2012, Nintendo has released a Mario Party game every three years.
The continued success of the Mario Party depends on the unique advantages of Nintendo's stable, highly flexible mascot characters. Mario can be a title on any sports game where he and his friends decide to headline the news in any year, or on his trademark blockbuster 3D platform. Everyone’s Italian Plumber is a veritable chameleon that can be played in any game Nintendo needs and promotes various mid-size games with the power of its superstars.
Thankfully, for Nintendo, this shape change is not limited to Mario. Links are also no stranger to filling the gap between their mainline games and encounter them on smaller adventures. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, Spirit Tracks, links between the worlds and the awakening of Link have made fans happy to occupy games like Skyward Sword and the tears of the Kingdom. Calculate these games, and suddenly, the legend of the Legend of Zelda begins with the legend of the Mario Party, which starts with the adventures every three years or so.
In Mario Party Jamboree and the Echo of Zelda and other smaller Nintendo first-party games, there is an established blueprint that keeps the Switch 2 healthy and full of games and fills the game in the years to come, especially with Nintendo being close to the launch with the Switch It the Switch Enect of Switch 1 Era. While it's easy to ignore now, Nintendo's release calendar for the entire Switch 1 generation is no joke.
In 2024, Sony Interactive Entertainment released nine games. Xbox Game Studios has published only six games, i.e. nine games if the ports of other consoles are included. Meanwhile, Nintendo released 12 games in the final year of the Switch. As you can see in the image below, Nintendo's publishing output generally holds the lead in annual releases on Xbox and Playstation. The only exception is in 2020 when Xbox renamed all its first-party studios under the new Xbox Game Studios Banner.
Maintaining a regular release schedule of 10 or more games may help keep the conversion relevant, and it may be that Furukawa's goal is that he talks about “developing game software with shorter development periods, which still gives consumers a sense of novelty”.
To be fair, this strategy of releasing smaller games in a short period of time is not unique to Nintendo. I used to Advocate more “half order”, Just like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, as a solution to the industry's swelling development pipeline. While Kratos may not be competing in golf spin-offs, Sony once released bite-sized games in the most popular franchise, before it openly competes for live service games. While I'm not sure if this game paid off for Sony, the move does seem to be canceling the game's ripple effect at Naughty Dogs, Bend Studios and Studios like Blues.
At that time, many people in the industry seem arrive agree With my call for smaller games, but so far the idea has not been implemented in blockbuster space. Instead, the general strategy of gaming company leaders seems to be to help struggling developers meet deadlines by combining more AI and offshore development to help struggling developers meet deadlines, which seems to be fighting the growing AAA game size. Either create a live service game, so profits can continue to be generated after release.
Nintendo's Furukawa has ruled out using AI for game development In separate questions and answers Therefore, among investors in 2024. While no CEO of the game company stepped up, Nintendo once again approached the chaos and made reasonable plans for its future with wise plans, if it did follow that.
Matt Kim is an advanced feature editor for IGN.