Clearly false alarm, as many already have proven.
Nintendo made a major attempt (major because it was EAD that made the game) in creating a new hardcore franchise with Pikmin on the Cube and had quite a number of other new games on the Cube like Luigi's Mansion, Starfox Adventures (I consider both of them as new franchises), Geist, Eternal Darkness and others.
Aditonally, they started releasing J-only franchises like Wars and Fire Emblem in the West and had a number of new handheld franchises since the late GBA era with Golden Sun, Wario Ware, Mario & Luigi etc.









