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The story
An article reporting that Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto admitted the company has lately taken on more of a “preservation society” feel was picked up on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board. The gist was that Nintendo needs to bring in new blood while still preserving its own signature approach to game-making. The thread split between complaints that “no new IPs are coming out” and “it’s all remakes and sequels with no risk-taking,” versus pushback arguing that “titles like Bananza and Air Rider actually show they’ve been taking chances since the Switch 2.” Posters also noted that ballooning development scale has caused staff shortages, and that fans themselves tend to attack any experimental title Nintendo puts out.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged that the company has lately taken on more of a “preservation society” feel. While carrying on Nintendo’s own brand of game-making, he said, the company needs to bring in new blood rather than simply sticking to the old forms as-is.
Source: gamestalk.net / Original article here
What people said
Is it okay to be even bolder than Sushi Striker?
Are there any career Nintendo lifers who could actually beat Fujibayashi, who came in as a mid-career hire?
Has development gotten so expensive that they can't afford to take risks anymore?
To begin with, Splatoon, Pokémon, Zelda, and Smash Bros. — all massive hits on the Switch — haven't even come out on Switch 2 yet.
Isn't it ultimately about cost? Which makes me wonder — what's even the point of boosting console hardware performance?
Stuff like Rhythm Heaven was actually pretty bold originally — it just looks standard now because it sold well.
Honestly, aside from Tokyo, Zelda, and the 10th one, everything's lost steam. Especially the Splatoon team and the Yabuki team, which keep failing one after another.
Isn't there a mountain of that stuff already, just never made public? Games like Nintendo Dōji and Card Hero started out as scrapped projects, after all.
From here on they can live off remakes and sequels.
Think the DS's touch panel, the Wii's motion sensor, the Switch's hybrid switching.
Until a new "way to play" like that gets defined, there's not much to be done.
Especially since this time the hardware is basically just a straight upgrade.
Is there any other company doing that? And I mean an actual company, not an indie dev.
That said, Metroid, which has actually been trying hard lately, doesn't seem to be selling well.
You shouldn't listen to nerds and old-timers too much.
All nerds ever want is more of the same.
That's exactly the point — the complaint is that Nintendo lately only makes "more of the same."
They should put more thought into fleshing it out so it looks appealing as an IP too.
Splatoon was probably the last time they actually put in that effort.
They undervalue character design way too much.
Even Splatoon caught so many eyes precisely because the characters themselves were appealing.
Maybe it's about time for Mario Kart 2 — there's still plenty of untapped gameplay ideas.
Just letting you get out of the car would be a start.
Lateral thinking with withered technology (Gunpei Yokoi's famous phrase about repurposing mature tech in new ways).
The moment they reach for Donkey Kong or Kirby, that's the "IP preservation society" right there.
You're supposed to come up with the gameplay first, then figure out which character fits it.
Xenoblade
Reginleiv
Sin and Punishment
Fatal Frame
The Last Story
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Captain Rainbow
Pandora's Tower
Nintendo today just doesn't put out this many gamer-focused titles anymore.
They were taking way more chances back then.
Guess Nintendo really does shine brightest when they're cornered, huh?
Just putting these out isn't enough, though.
They all got high praise from hardcore fans, but none of it translated into sales.
Can you be more specific?
Though I guess it's also tough having so many IPs whose popularity they're obligated to keep maintaining.
You can clearly see that development scale has ballooned and they just don't have enough hands.
They're already stretched thin just keeping up with existing titles.
Has there been a single successful new IP since Splatoon?
Ring Fit.
Selling over 10 million units — there's no way that counts as a failure.
Probably means the next generation of talent isn't being raised well.
It's fundamentally impossible to have a generation that's never touched video games make games.
That's what users want.
New stuff can wait until people start getting sick of the old.
I'd say now is actually the time they need something new.
For better or worse, the Switch put out a ton of games that felt like "greatest hits" culminations, so if they just play it safe now, the result is just a watered-down version of that.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Nintendo has a track record of stabilizing revenue right after a new hardware launch by leaning on new entries in existing hit franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Smash Bros., and the thread’s observation that “Splatoon, Pokémon, Zelda, and Smash Bros. still haven’t come to the Switch 2” fits that pattern. Opinions split over whether Nintendo has truly become a “preservation society”: critics blamed an overreliance on remakes, while others pushed back by citing titles like Bananza and Air Rider, where existing IPs got genuinely new ways to play. Structural points were also raised about how rising development costs and difficulty securing talent make it harder to release small, experimental titles — meaning Miyamoto’s comment can also be read as a self-assessment of Nintendo’s internal situation.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “Shigeru Miyamoto: “Nintendo Has Started Feeling More Like a Preservation Society Lately”.”
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