It's playing it safe. They slap "Mario" in every game they make and they don't have to worry about sales.

And how would you explain the sucess of the Wii?

You probably mean .. "by any stretch of my mind"

It doesn't have to be Mario, but the idea of Mario characters blowing eachother away amuses me to no end.

They desperately need a new kind of IP that can bring in consumers that beyond just what Mario/Zelda do. And they need to actually put some marketing muscle behind said franchise.

Sony has done it with Uncharted and again with The Last of Us, and even MS invested a lot into the Gears franchise.

Time for Nintendo to step up with something new.

The point is exactly that. It wouldn't do nearly as well.

Businesses need to make money. And Nintendo is a business first and foremost. They need to make money.

One of the first rules of every single business is that without risk, there's no gain.

You can't play it safe forever.

I agree with Miyamoto: different gameplay creates a new IP.
I agree with most posts here: different characters and story creates a new IP.

So in my opinion TLOU is a new IP, the first Uncharted was a new IP, as was the first Paper Mario or (long time ago) the first Mario sports game was.

For people saying Miyamoto cannot invent new characters and stories, all he can do is Mario: you all forgot Zelda, Pikmin or the Wii-games.

For people saying Nintendo has no new IPs: Dillon's Rollign Western, Pullblox, Freakyforms (all with new gameplay-ideas AND new characters).

For people talking about generic shooters: try some games of the range of 'generic shooters' and talk again.

I think some people also need to realize that just because he said this, doesn't mean he wont make a game with new characters. He's just trying to say that they ARE making new games.

edit: Although I don't see why you guys are so obsessed over him specifically making the games, there are multiple people at Nintendo making games.  He may supervise them, but I don't think Miyamoto would be completely against them making new characters for new IPs.

If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

Their strategy worked for the past several years, I doubt they think there is a need to fix anything.

He never said anything at all NEGATIVE towards new characters, nor did he imply that new IPs have no value. Some people will read anything into anything if it suits their personal beliefs/agenda.

What he WAS saying in that quote, is that he personally feels providing new gameplay experiences is more important than simply pumping out new games with brand new characters all the time. And that should come as a surprise to NO ONE, if you stop to consider that is pretty much backed up by anything the man has ever worked on or been involved with. He has always put gameplay first.