Nintendo Might Be Making Changes
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently suggested that Nintendo might move away from console development in order to adapt to the changing demands of the entertainment business.
“We aren’t really fixated on our consoles,” Furukawa said. “At the moment we’re offering the uniquely developed Nintendo Switch and its software – and that’s what we’re basing how we deliver the ‘Nintendo experience’ on. That being said, technology changes. We’ll continue to think flexibly about how to deliver that experience as time goes on.”
“It has been over 30 years since we started developing consoles,” he continued. “Nintendo’s history goes back even farther than that, and through all the struggles that they faced the only thing that they thought about was what to make next. In the long-term, perhaps our focus as a business could shift away from home consoles – flexibility is just as important as ingenuity.”
When asked how Nintendo plans to adapt to industry “fluctuations” Furukuwa said he was “thinking about little ways we can reduce that kind of instability,” and that he’d “like to increase” the companies smartphone games to ensure “a continuous stream of revenue.”
“We’re also dabbling in theme parks and movies – different ways to have our characters be a part of everyday life. I’m anticipating a strong synergy like that,” he said.
“I don’t want our developers to think too much along the lines of ‘what should I do if we fail?'” he added. “My most important role is to facilitate an environment in which they can demonstrate their own abilities. I’m not a pro developer myself, so I leave the actual development to leaders that can tell what a good game is and what isn’t.”