Mario is a brand name now, not a franchise. Who care if Nintendo makes some game and then slaps the Mario name on it? It's an easily recognizable brand, so a Mario game is guaranteed to sell a bunch of copies.
Furthermore, how many Mario games come out per generation? One since the N64, and two this generation due to NSMB. How many Zelda games? Two or three. Metroid? Two.
Now compare that to how many Final Fantasy games were released just last year: 12. Yes, twelve. Granted, some of those are re-releases with a bit of new stuff on them, but still. Twelve Final Fantasy releases in a year alone, pretty much all of them some form of JRPG. For comparison's sake, Nintendo only released six Mario-branded games in the same year (if you count Mario & Sonic) - and that includes offerings as diverse as Mario Party, the Mario Sports titles, and - of course - SMG. Which one is milking which franchise, now?
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
