Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has informed investors that the Kyoto-based company is considering shorter development times for certain games to help offset the rising cost of video game development. With hardware and games becoming more and more advanced the costs are steadily rising with longer development time just one factor in costs spiralling. Mr. Furukawa said it is something they will consider moving forward and this is likely to effect smaller titles as opposed to mainline Mario and Zelda titles.
I am concerned that the improved performance of Nintendo Switch 2 will lead to higher game development costs, which in turn could result in higher software prices and ultimately a decrease in the gaming population. What measures are you considering to address this?
Recent game software development has become larger in scale and longer in duration, resulting in higher development costs. The game business has always been a high-risk business, and we recognize that rising development costs are increasing that risk. Our development teams are devising various ways to maintain our traditional approach to creating games amidst the increasing scale and length of development. We believe it is important to make the necessary investments for more efficient development. We also believe it is possible to develop game software with shorter development periods that still offer consumers a sense of novelty. We see this as one potential solution to the concern about rising development costs and software prices, and we will explore it from various angles within the company.
Maybe shorter development time will be possible because of the use of AI too, but also you don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot by rushing something that could effect future game sales and end up losing out even more in the long run.
Maybe the next Metroid prime game will only take 10 years instead of nearly 20.
You know very well, Metroid Prime 4 didn’t take almost 20 years just because of development time. 😑
I see more Sega games than Nintendo games these days. This statement reeks of desperation as some companies, such as Sega, are eating their lunch.
SEGA can’t even make competent games for their own mascot lmao, I highly doubt Nintendo are concerned by them.
What? Seriously, literal what?
Recent Sega games: Sonic Frontiers (not good and rushed), Superstars (awful), Persona 3 Reload (remake that didn’t even remade everything and put the extra episode as a very expensive DLC), Metaphor (good but highly formulaic), Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (port with additional story), Raidou (remaster), etc etc.
Nintendo aren’t concerned one bit by Sega.
I prefer Mario more than Sonic, but your takes reek of a huge bias lol.
I have mixed feelings on this: well I do think games these days take a little too long to develop, I also don’t want them to be rushed out incomplete.
I’d also appreciate it if the cost of video games went down from 80 to say $50, but maybe I’m being unreasonable
The solution is really simple. Stop making MEGA GAMES, cut the budget, make smarter team numbers, reduce the price of the games and have a better ecosystem with a bigger variety and less losses if the games don’t succeed. But I don’t think that’s going to happen
The public won’t accept it. It’ll feel like regression for them after so many “mega games”, as you put it.
It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario. Everything went wrong the moment that a) developers started listening to people who don’t know the first thing about developing games and b) companies started making video games as if they’re Hollywood blockbusters.
Sounds like you could make your own gaming company, since you have all the knowledge there is to know. 🤷♂️
What’s this smug response buddy? I’m not here to act like a master in economics, if you opened your eyes for just one bit you would realize that this approach of investing as much as possible on huge projects is literally ruining many industries and not just videogames.
I think Nintendo needs to make more games using the same engines. It feels like so often they make an entire engine for one or two games like Breath of the Wild and TotK. I know the recent Yoshi game was made in Unreal and I think the new DK game is made in the same engine as Odyssey.
I think part of the problem is Nintendo doesn’t often do direct sequels even though people would buy them.
I do have strong feelings for this statement. I believe this could help with the cost of game development as long as it’s not too rush.
GOOD. Games the size of OoT and Wind Waker are totally fine, N64 – GameCube level length. Stop making huge open-world games, there’s no end to that philosophy except bigger, bigger, bigger. Make things more interesting in the moment.
I hope nintendo’s next console is a 16 bit home console.
i dont even use my portable consoles away from the couch or my bed so the whole home/portable hybrid concept is a waste.
just make games that are fun to play, hard to beat, and without all the extra, QoL, latest technology, “gaming of the future” bullshit.
Hell yeah. Smaller budgets means more experimentation.
Not every game needs to be a 50+ hour open-world epic or a live service game. Give us some 10-20 hour games that try something a little different again.
Here is a tip, don’t develop ar all. The mount of saved money will be enormous, Nintendo!!
/s
I hope wii games comes and pandimonium
Magick boy 1 and 2, pandimonium,nightmare and Midtown madness
Nightmare 3d .game lacky cheese and micro man
cheese happiness game
happinesscheese