Nintendo President Says Longer Game Development Cycles Are “Unavoidable”
Nintendo President Says Longer Game Development Cycles Are “Unavoidable”
by Soplox
27 Comments
Ancient-Many798
But only for certain games. There’s a difference between developing ToTK and Echoes of the Past I assume.
Rath_Brained
Please let pokemon cook longer. I love the new gens, but it’s getting so bland. We need better animations.
Dareyos
Yea, go and tell Gamefreak
cool_as_honkey
I’d rather wait for a great game longer than the average game that was rushed. I have been waiting for Metroid Prime 4 years now and if the game is anything like Metroid Prime for Gamecube it has been worth the wait.
Dreyfus2006
We’ve already seen this on the Switch, which has slowed releases down dramatically compared to the previous generation. Personally, I would have preferred they stick with lower spec systems so they could continue to produce games at the same rate as previous generations. Nintendo games don’t need advanced hardware anyway.
As it stands, they are going to be in a pickle when they run out of remakes to pad out the years with.
sonos82
I am expecting Prime 4 to be amazing because of this. I know it was basically restarted after a few years but i have a hard time believing that it was a 100% scrap.
And I know everyone is has different opinions on this but I miss the occasional updates of screen shots and in modern times videos of the progress that they are making so it feels like the wait isn’t quite as long
megasean3000
Longer game cycles I can handle. Just give us smaller games like Echoes of Wisdom to help bide our time until the next big release. Something Sony and Microsoft can’t seem to wrap their heads around.
mythriz
On a related note, I found it somewhat funny that on my multireddit feed, the post directly underneath this one is:
[Found out that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development, 16 years after announcement… Fans better gotta be patient…](/r/gaming/comments/1dvtpwm/found_out_that_beyond_good_evil_2_is_still_in/)
MarcsterS
We all thought TOTK was going to be like Majora’s Mask, where they could get the game out faster thanks to having existing assets. Little did we know they were making a whole new entire gameplay system.
rms141
Switch 2 game MSRP prices are increasing to $70 across the board. Nintendo is messaging this ahead of time to prep us for the inevitable.
Jarsky2
Could you send that memo to The Pokemon Company?
montrayjak
I think I’m OK with this. We’re reaching the point where modern games hold up for longer and now we have an entire catalogue to work through.
For example, even as a Nintendo fan, I’ve never fully played Metroid aside from the NES one as a kid. At some point soon, I plan to play through the entire series. I have plenty! The upcoming generation gets to feel this with the entire Nintendo roster.
I would much rather high quality releases over time, like Mario Kart, than junk released constantly, like Pokemon.
real-dreamer
Prefer this to crunch and abuse.
Epicfro
I think that’s fine as long as they continue to hold off announcements until it’s almost ready for release.
WingZeroCoder
This is actually a pretty good set of quotes.
While he’s acknowledging dev time is increasing (which personally I think is a huge problem affecting the whole industry) he mentions specifically putting time into improving dev tools to offset this — an underrated quality amongst management in all of software development, but especially games.
And the final quote about delivering results greater than “just technology alone” is exactly why Nintendo is in the lauded position it’s in right now.
SinisterMeatball
I just hope a sequel to Mario Odyssey is made
PocketTornado
I wish the industry would adopt something like triple ‘A’ bites where polished and fun smaller games could exist that could be done in less time.
I would love to see Nintendo start to release some sort of Rebirth collection similar to what Konami did on the Wii… we had reimagined classics with 32 bit like effects on pixel art graphics. Contra, Castlevania and Gradius were offered and each was a super solid game. Now imagine Nintendo doing the same for some classics in their catalog.
userlivewire
That’s fair but knowing that you have to time multiple productions so a couple of these 4 year projects gets released every year. That’s the problem today. Huge gaps.
paws4269
I for one welcome longer dev times. Gives games the time they need to be as polished as possible and should also help mitigate crunch
Dalton387
Let’s turn that around, “Short Game Dev Cycles Lead to Sub-Par Games”.
MemeMan4-20-69
Tell that to gamefreak
tge90
Then ps6/switch 2/xbox 1000 should stay out for 12 yrs instead of 4-6yr new consoles
BOSS-3000
Metroid fans: First time?
alexchrist
As long as they are secretly working on a new 3D Mario then I don’t mind waiting for however long it’s gonna take
brzzcode
Nintendolife is such a garbage site, ven worse is how no one here read more than a headline.
dark4181
I’d rather get a single complete game for a standard price than a DLC subscription.
pocket_arsenal
I think “unavoidable” is a little strong. Maybe if you want to keep escalating size and scope of the games but I really don’t think we need to be doing that…
27 Comments
But only for certain games. There’s a difference between developing ToTK and Echoes of the Past I assume.
Please let pokemon cook longer. I love the new gens, but it’s getting so bland. We need better animations.
Yea, go and tell Gamefreak
I’d rather wait for a great game longer than the average game that was rushed. I have been waiting for Metroid Prime 4 years now and if the game is anything like Metroid Prime for Gamecube it has been worth the wait.
We’ve already seen this on the Switch, which has slowed releases down dramatically compared to the previous generation. Personally, I would have preferred they stick with lower spec systems so they could continue to produce games at the same rate as previous generations. Nintendo games don’t need advanced hardware anyway.
As it stands, they are going to be in a pickle when they run out of remakes to pad out the years with.
I am expecting Prime 4 to be amazing because of this. I know it was basically restarted after a few years but i have a hard time believing that it was a 100% scrap.
And I know everyone is has different opinions on this but I miss the occasional updates of screen shots and in modern times videos of the progress that they are making so it feels like the wait isn’t quite as long
Longer game cycles I can handle. Just give us smaller games like Echoes of Wisdom to help bide our time until the next big release. Something Sony and Microsoft can’t seem to wrap their heads around.
On a related note, I found it somewhat funny that on my multireddit feed, the post directly underneath this one is:
[Found out that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development, 16 years after announcement… Fans better gotta be patient…](/r/gaming/comments/1dvtpwm/found_out_that_beyond_good_evil_2_is_still_in/)
We all thought TOTK was going to be like Majora’s Mask, where they could get the game out faster thanks to having existing assets. Little did we know they were making a whole new entire gameplay system.
Switch 2 game MSRP prices are increasing to $70 across the board. Nintendo is messaging this ahead of time to prep us for the inevitable.
Could you send that memo to The Pokemon Company?
I think I’m OK with this. We’re reaching the point where modern games hold up for longer and now we have an entire catalogue to work through.
For example, even as a Nintendo fan, I’ve never fully played Metroid aside from the NES one as a kid. At some point soon, I plan to play through the entire series. I have plenty! The upcoming generation gets to feel this with the entire Nintendo roster.
I would much rather high quality releases over time, like Mario Kart, than junk released constantly, like Pokemon.
Prefer this to crunch and abuse.
I think that’s fine as long as they continue to hold off announcements until it’s almost ready for release.
This is actually a pretty good set of quotes.
While he’s acknowledging dev time is increasing (which personally I think is a huge problem affecting the whole industry) he mentions specifically putting time into improving dev tools to offset this — an underrated quality amongst management in all of software development, but especially games.
And the final quote about delivering results greater than “just technology alone” is exactly why Nintendo is in the lauded position it’s in right now.
I just hope a sequel to Mario Odyssey is made
I wish the industry would adopt something like triple ‘A’ bites where polished and fun smaller games could exist that could be done in less time.
I would love to see Nintendo start to release some sort of Rebirth collection similar to what Konami did on the Wii… we had reimagined classics with 32 bit like effects on pixel art graphics. Contra, Castlevania and Gradius were offered and each was a super solid game. Now imagine Nintendo doing the same for some classics in their catalog.
That’s fair but knowing that you have to time multiple productions so a couple of these 4 year projects gets released every year. That’s the problem today. Huge gaps.
I for one welcome longer dev times. Gives games the time they need to be as polished as possible and should also help mitigate crunch
Let’s turn that around, “Short Game Dev Cycles Lead to Sub-Par Games”.
Tell that to gamefreak
Then ps6/switch 2/xbox 1000 should stay out for 12 yrs instead of 4-6yr new consoles
Metroid fans: First time?
As long as they are secretly working on a new 3D Mario then I don’t mind waiting for however long it’s gonna take
Nintendolife is such a garbage site, ven worse is how no one here read more than a headline.
I’d rather get a single complete game for a standard price than a DLC subscription.
I think “unavoidable” is a little strong. Maybe if you want to keep escalating size and scope of the games but I really don’t think we need to be doing that…