Late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata way back in 2006 already talked about how Nintendo shouldn’t just keep churning out Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda sequels to survive. He was worried that if the company kept releasing similar titles over and over, outsiders might start seeing Nintendo as a conservative, change-resistant company—and that’s not what he wanted Nintendo to become.
Nintendo Wasn’t Doing Well Back Then
At the time, Nintendo was facing stiff competition from PlayStation and Xbox. The N64 and GameCube were both underperforming compared to their rivals. Under market pressure, Iwata didn’t choose to simply rely on more familiar sequels to hold onto players. Instead, he wanted Nintendo to find different gaming experiences that could attract people who weren’t necessarily gamers.
During Iwata’s tenure, Nintendo launched the motion-controlled Wii, along with games like Nintendogs and Brain Age for the DS—titles aimed at a much broader audience. These products stopped Nintendo from being solely focused on traditional console gamers, showing the company’s direction of trying different gameplay approaches and audiences.
It’s Not That Sequels Are Bad—It’s That They Can’t Be ALL You Do!
Iwata’s thinking wasn’t about Nintendo abandoning Mario or Zelda—it’s about not letting well-known IPs become the ceiling for creativity. Later, titles like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild also tried new gameplay within familiar franchises.
This old interview being revisited now highlights a persistent challenge in the gaming industry: Sequels give players a comfortable return, but if a company only dares to repeat the formula that worked before, what else can Nintendo do to surprise people?