What I found odd was that some of the new characters that Sakurai is wondering about were there but somehow got regulated to things like trophies in SSBB. I really would have liked Isaac to be playable...

When they’re all lined up like this, it becomes obvious that there is roughly 6-year blank before and after Pikmin. While there have been big series since then like "Animal Crossing," "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day," and "Wii Sports" it does seem that coming up with a completely new character-driven series has gotten more difficult recently.
Quote from: http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/various/various33.html

Tom Nook should have been a character in Brawl.

Anyways, I think Nintendo is working on new IP's. However right now they're most concerned with getting those big names out there so they can attract the audiences. Brawl, Galaxy, Kart, Metroid, and Zelda. Give them time and we'll start seeing some original stuff like Disaster.

I imagine a lot of people would get upset if they dropped making new games of old series too.

Just look at the enormous number of series:

AC
Donkey Kong
F-Zero
Fire Emblem
Golden Sun
Kid Icarus
Kirby
Mario platformer
Mario Party
Mario Kart
Mario Tennis
Metroid
EarthBound/Mother
Mii series
Paper Mario
Pikmin
Pokemon
Star Fox
Smash Bros
Zelda

That's their main series, Wario Ware and such have been excluded.

That's 21 series. Nintendo has 4000 empolyees.

Also keep in mind that some series, like Zelda and Mario Party, oftenly has 2 game releases over the 5 years of the console.

Kid Icarus and Golden Sun are both minor majors, but look how upset people are because they can't get a new game in the series.

Let's say they have 25 games they want to release over the entire console's era. They have to release those 25, or the series will lose some of its popularity.

How many games will they manage to sell in a year? 6? One each 2nd month? I'll say 6.

That means that they have titles for 4 years, and they need 5ish original titles. Maybe more if they sell games faster than every second month.

This is why I’m looking forward to a new Kid Icarus. Pit isn’t a new character but his game should be a new experience. Also don't Disaster Day of Crisis and Soma Bringer count as new Nintendo owned titles since Monolith is now a first party developer?

Nintendo is not the only company not creating new IPs... look at the next few big games for PS3... MGS4, FFXIII, GT5, GTA4.... there is alot of numbers at the end of those games. In many cases I prefer sequels if done well because they are not an experiment, a good example is SMG... Would a new IP have been so refined.. well maybe, but I feel SMG is a culminatrion of the work done over the last 12 years in Mario series. SSB is another one, Brawl is so much better than SSB or Melee (unless you are stubborn and refuse to play any, but the N64 one)

I think they should only create new IP's for a new gameplay experiance... Pikmin is an example of this. I see no reason for Nintendo to create a new platformer IP, they don't even make enough DK and Mario(platformers) games. Sometimes like in the case of Metriod or Wario Ware they can recycle an old charater for a new experiance, but Nintendo has enough charaters now, they don't need to add any unless they are making a new experiance... and even then they can find old charater (like Kid Ic) and translate them into it.

@Bigjon

Square Enix are making a lot of new franchises, Metal Gear Solid 4 is the last in its series, I don't know about GT5, and GTA 4 is the only way to save the company from bankrupcy (or worse, EA)

However, I do agree with you.

Just look at what people want:

New Golden Sun
New DK platformer
New Kid Icarus
New aspect Metroid
New Pikmin
Another Zelda for this gen

They should understand that they get that, on cost of new IPs. You can't get both the cat and the bag.

I think new Nintendo charecters are needed but its not urgent.