James Delahunty
30 Jun 2013 3:28
Nintendo does not believe that it is releasing too many Mario games, saying that keeping old popular franchises fresh with innovation keeps them relevant.
Nintendo senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta said that the Japanese gaming firm releases new Mario titles based on fan freeback, and that so long as every new Mario iteration is innovative in its own way, the brand will stay fresh and relevant.
"We think we're putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers' creative visions are," Scibetta said.
"The key to that is as long as there's innovation is occurring within the gameplay, as long as there's new features, then marrying the characters and the IPs that people love is the right call from our standpoint."
Nintendo is criticized often for relying too much on old IPs rather than aiming to develop new blockbuster IPs.
"You could call all the games that we're making here new IP in the sense that they're new gameplay experiences," he said. "They just happen to also have the IP that people associate with."