Nintendo's recently been talking a lot about their strategy involving the Switch's second year and beyond. Upon the announcement of him resigning, Outgoing Nintendo President, Tatsumi Kimishima dropped this interesting nugget.

In this second year, the initiatives we are planning come from our recognition that we also have to challenge ourselves to delivering Nintendo Switch into the hands of consumers who have never played a Nintendo platform before, and to those who have played before, but not recently.

Not only is he referring children, and casual gamers with products like Nintendo Labo, but this can also imply games aimed at gamers on PS4, Xbox One and PC, who aren't fans of Nintendo's typical fare, or those who used to play Nintendo consoles, but have since grew out of or moved on from them. Obviously a large part of solving that puzzle is getting third party support, Which Nintendo's been doing a pretty good job at doing so far. But internally, I think Nintendo is going to try and challenge themselves to be more versatile as a developer and publisher.

What this means is that we may start seeing some New IP and other games from Nintendo that are a bit unusual from their standard games. One of the first strikes, is Metroid Prime 4, which was announced at E3 last year. Metroid Prime 4 is likely part of Nintendo's "expanded audience" initiative in the context of Nintendo targeting mainstream gamers who aren't Nintendo fans. There's also Breath of the Wild, which according to Nintendo, was bought by players who've never played a Zelda game before. But more importantly, we could see Nintendo EPD try stuff like a gritty action game, or a realistic racer. After all, Shinya Takahashi did hint at the return of Wave Race a month or two ago. So in addition to beloved Nintendo Mascots (many of which return to their older gameplay styles), and unique casual targeted software, Nintendo looks to be aiming to get Playstation and Xbox gamers into the Switch ecosystem, by crafting games with aesthetics and gameplay that they may like, while adding their own touch and polish to it. Nintendo's produced plenty of very "un-Nintendo" software in the past, but with the Switch, they seem way more serious about it than ever before.

To me, sounds just like Breath of the Wild. That was absolutely nothing I wanted from the Zelda series, yet people who didn't care about Zelda before loved it to bits (and admittedly some who liked Zelda before), so sounds like this strategy has been in full effect for a while now.

Sad times ahead.

It actually won't be that bad. You'll still get your traditional "Nintendo-ey" games from Nintendo. It's just that you'll also see them try and make games that are a bit of a departure from what they're typically known for. So it'll be a mix of both.

We'll see, my favourite franchise has already become completely unrecognisable and given its commercial success I doubt I'll ever get to see it be itself again. But hey, maybe it's just time for me to stop gaming. I dunno.

Zelda was very much in need of a change. And the one they made has been heralded by basically everyone as incredible. So it seems you are in the vast minority for not liking BotW.

Personally I don't get the whole "i don't like nintendo games" thing. I think that just comes from sony and xbox fanboys who don't buy nintendo systems because they already have their go to company for video games systems. It's not like saying you don't like a franchise. For instance, I don't like GTA games, think they're boring as hell. But saying you don't like Nintendo games is just saying you don't like games specifically because they are made by Nintendo for simply fanboy reasons. They is such a huge variety of Nintendo games no one can possible simply "not like Nintendo games". Maybe other than people who only play first person shooters and sports games. Other than that I don't think its a real demographic.

This is kind of how I felt when Zelda went 3D.  To me the 2D Zelda games of the NES/SNES were the "real" Zeldas.  Every 10-20 years Nintendo decides to reinvent Zelda and go in a completely new direction with it.

I do think we'll see series like Wave Race return, but I think that has more to do with Nintendo's online subscription than anything else. Nintendo can't rely on the mainstream FIFA/CoD/Battlefield/Overwatch/Destiny crowds for online subscription payments on Switch, so they need to bring out their own online games to keep subscriptions going. Games like Wave Race, 1080, F Zero and the rumoured Star Fox Grand Prix fit with that need.

The implication they're trying to get gamers who left the fold is interesting, but that could equally end up being a play on nostalgia more than trying new, 'gritty' IP. Look at Pokemon - the rumoured return to generation one/Kanto will see Pokemon return to its most recognisable, mainstream incarnation, for example. I think you're right that Nintendo will use their streamlined development capabilities and one-system focus to try and provide a more versatile software line-up than before, but I don't necessarily see that coming in the form of mainstream, 'gritty' IP. Time will tell.

Well, but Zelda has it's 2D-entries still. While admittedly Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks felt somewhat strange, what did you think of a Link between Worlds? Not satisfying enough for 2D-zelda-crave?

Well it's not the "2D" part by itself that I like.  It is the action from the NES Zelda games that I really like.  (The action in Link to the Past is pretty good too.)  For some reason, shortly after Link to the Past, even 2D Zelda games and Zelda clones became more about puzzle solving and less about action in itself.  I remember playing this 2D PS1 game, Alundra, which I liked at first, but the more I got into it, the more it became about puzzles, so after a couple of dungeons I quit, because that wasn't what I was really looking for.  I haven't tried every 2D or 3D Zelda game or Zelda clone, but the ones I have tried have all been about puzzles which I don't like.

I've only tried Link Between Worlds for a couple of hours.  I didn't love it or hate it.  I need to play it more before I can say how much I like it, but I can say that it didn't grab me immediately like the NES Zeldas did.  Ironically, a game I liked more is "Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why Did You Steal Our Garbage?"  This is an action oriented Zelda 2 clone.  It was fun.  I think Adventure Time has a Link to the Past clone, so I need to give that one a shot.