May 9th 2024.
In recent news, there has been speculation about how long it would take for a next generation Zelda game to be developed. With Xbox facing challenges in game development, Nintendo has also addressed the possibility of having to make changes in their own development processes.
As Xbox struggles with studio closures and job cuts, many have compared their actions to those of Japanese publishers like Nintendo. However, despite not announcing any layoffs in recent years, Japanese companies still face the same pressures as Western companies. And with each new generation of consoles, game budgets tend to increase, even for Japanese companies with traditionally lower budgets. This means that if the rumored Nintendo Switch 2 is more powerful than the current model, Nintendo will have to invest more time and money in game development.
It may seem like Nintendo is avoiding the issues faced by Xbox, but in reality, they may only be delaying them. Nintendo's president, Shuntaro Furukawa, has acknowledged that game development will only become longer, more complex, and more sophisticated in the future. This is evident in the development of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which took six years to make despite building on the foundation of Breath of the Wild.
In Western companies, the biggest budget games can take up to eight years to develop. And with the increasing demands of game development, it may not be long before Nintendo finds itself in the same position. During a Q&A session following Nintendo's latest financial results, most questions were about the Switch 2, which Furukawa avoided answering.
In response to the growing time and financial investments needed for game development, Furukawa suggested that mergers and acquisitions could be considered as a solution. However, he did not mention any specific companies that Nintendo may be interested in. He emphasized that their basic policy is to work with developers who understand the brand and have contributed to building the company's reputation over the years.
While other companies have discussed using AI to decrease development times, Furukawa did not mention this as a solution. Instead, he talked about managing the issue with new production techniques. This is a significant change in approach for Nintendo, as they have traditionally not been interested in acquisitions and have made very few in their history.
In the past, Nintendo's acquisitions have often resulted in collaborations on larger projects, such as Monolith Soft's involvement in the development of modern Zelda titles. It seems that this is the type of arrangement Furukawa is suggesting for future acquisitions. This makes it difficult to determine the extent of changes in Nintendo's development processes.
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