Title says it all, could Nintendo continue without Mario? Would they immediately die without Mario? Can they rely on their other big franchises instead to survive? 

I'll take a guess and say................they might actually still stay alive and strong, but not mainly because of Zelda or Metroid...instead because of.....................

Well that's just my guess. The purpose of this thread was to get your opinion on this question. So.......................go ahead and express.

Yeah the first thing that popped in my head was pokemon xD
Though zelda and metroid are good, they just don`t have as many releases.
But now they have the wii sports stuff which sells like hottbuns :P So thats still a money cow right now.

But yeah they would survive, though if Mario was never created they probably wouldn`t be the nintendo we know today xD

They would live one with their wii- word games

Bowser kidnapped Mario just before the Gamecube launched. The PS2 AND the Xbox outsold that system. Luigi began using marijuana and ecstasy and he dabbled in bondage porn.

That happened because Mario wasn't there at launch. Imagine if Mario wasn't there at all.

Could they survive? Sure. But they'd never hear the end of people saying they want another Mario game.

They definitely would be able to due to the Wii's numerous casual audience. Even if they don't have 20m+ games sold from Mario, they would still get 20m+ games sold from WiiFit, WiiFit+, Wii Sport, Sport Resort, and numerous other party games.

ya, Wii Sports, Pokemon, and hardware asles would still be huge

Yes.

I have three words for you-

The Wii series.

This is like asking if Disney would survive without Mickey Mouse. When was the last time they put him in any GOOD movies or TV shows? And yet they're doing just fine.

And the Wii at launch??