The way I take it is Nintendo will create new concepts for games, but use existing characters.
For instance Zelda: Majora's Mask could very easily have been a completely new IP, it's 3-day Armageddon system was completely unique.
Mario Galaxy could have starred a new character instead of Mario.
I actually think in many cases, Nintendo is way too conservative.
They go like 5-6 years in between "real" Mario games. Mario 64 was 1996, Mario Sunshine was 2002, Galaxy was 2007. That's a long f-ing time to wait if you ask me.
Only 1 Mario Kart per generation for any given machine so far (blah).
It's been almost 6 years since the last F-Zero. 12 years since the last really good Star Fox game.
7 years since the last Wave Race game.
15 years (lol) between Punch-Out! installments.
Prior to Metroid Prime it had been 8 years between Metroid games.
5 years since the last Donkey Kong platformer (if you count Jungle Beat, 10 years if you're using Donkey Kong 64 as the last true platformer).
On the DS even, any other company would've made New Super Mario Bros. 2, Nintendogs 2, Animal Crossing DS 2, Brain Training 3/4/5 ... by now .... except Nintendo.
Nintendo is honestly the only video game company in the world that will wait upwards of 3/4/5/6 years to make a sequel to a game that sells 8-15 million copies. Nintendo is also the only game company in the world that actually has more than 3 IPs that people actually give a crap about.
Really think about it ... maybe only Capcom (Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter) and Square-Enix after the merger (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts) have three IPs that actually sell big time. Sony has Gran Turismo and God of War and ... uh maybe Ratchet & Clank if you want to count that. Every other publisher has 1, maybe 2 hit IP, when they have 9/10/11/12 blockbuster franchises like Nintendo does, maybe it would be a comparable situation.
