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Forums - Nintendo - Lack of New Nintendo IPs

 

Should Nintendo Put More Effort Into Creating New IPs?

Yes 24 60.00%
 
No 16 40.00%
 
Total:40

Right now i think only one of the many Nintendo EPD teams focus on making new IPs, while the other EPD teams focus on established Nintendo series. One thing though is that Nintendo is in the process of expanding Nintendo EPD and will build a new development center in the coming years. Which could mean that they will create a new EPD team that will also focus on making new IPs.

The thing with new IPs though is that when you make a succesful new IP like Splatoon during the Wii U era, that will then mean that the new IP in question will also become an established franchise that will need ever more games, which means for every succesful new IP you create it means you have less development resources to come up with a new IP afterwards because you will then have to focus on growing the already established new IP over making an entirely new IP.

Last edited by Sephiran - on 11 December 2024

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It’s kind of a double edged sword here. On the one hand, it would certainly be nice to see new Nintendo IPs again during the Switch 2, since Splatoon is basically their last truly notable one a full decade ago.

On the other hand, Nintendo has so many interesting existing IPs at this point that they haven’t even been able to get to them all on a console like Switch that’s wildly successful and has had an 8 year life cycle. We’ve gotten no new Star Fox, Punch Out, Donkey Kong platformer, Kid Icarus, F-Zero, or Earthbound on Switch - all franchises I can guarantee have untapped potential to make a great new entry in that likely would have sold well on Switch. Not only that, but just those IPs alone represent a huge array of genres.
So if Nintendo wants to make a new JRPG, why not just bring back Earthbound instead like people have been clamoring for? If they want to make a bee fighting game, why not just do a new punch out? If they want to make a new racer, why not F Zero? Etc etc etc.

On top of all that, Nintendo often uses their best new ideas for their flagship franchises, like Mario and Zelda. For example, if I’m not mistaken, Splatoon was originally conceived as a Mario game. The only reason it didn’t happen was because they realized the concept just really didn’t make sense for that IP.

So I think that’s the only way new Nintendo IPs are really a good idea at this point and would get made. If they have a new concept/idea that legitimately doesn’t fit any of their many, many storied franchises. Which is unlikely tbh.



HyrulianScrolls said:

It’s kind of a double edged sword here. On the one hand, it would certainly be nice to see new Nintendo IPs again during the Switch 2, since Splatoon is basically their last truly notable one a full decade ago.

On the other hand, Nintendo has so many interesting existing IPs at this point that they haven’t even been able to get to them all on a console like Switch that’s wildly successful and has had an 8 year life cycle. We’ve gotten no new Star Fox, Punch Out, Donkey Kong platformer, Kid Icarus, F-Zero, or Earthbound on Switch - all franchises I can guarantee have untapped potential to make a great new entry in that likely would have sold well on Switch. Not only that, but just those IPs alone represent a huge array of genres.
So if Nintendo wants to make a new JRPG, why not just bring back Earthbound instead like people have been clamoring for? If they want to make a bee fighting game, why not just do a new punch out? If they want to make a new racer, why not F Zero? Etc etc etc.

On top of all that, Nintendo often uses their best new ideas for their flagship franchises, like Mario and Zelda. For example, if I’m not mistaken, Splatoon was originally conceived as a Mario game. The only reason it didn’t happen was because they realized the concept just really didn’t make sense for that IP.

So I think that’s the only way new Nintendo IPs are really a good idea at this point and would get made. If they have a new concept/idea that legitimately doesn’t fit any of their many, many storied franchises. Which is unlikely tbh.

Yeah they release new IP every gen, Switch is no exception to that. Other than Ring Fit perhaps Switch didn't have a hugely successful new IP launch, and fitness games are kinda different like who knows what fitness peripheral Switch 2 will have so Ring Fit may just be a one-off. But yeah agreed still they weren't even able to put all their great franchises on the Switch. They'll continue to make new IP every gen, but for every new successful IP that they create that becomes gets a game on each new system, that means some other franchise has a better chance of getting ignored.

Though honestly with all the money they've made they should just create a couple new teams so we can increase their bandwidth a bit and we can still get games like Fzero, Star Fox, DK, Kid Icarus, etc while they continue with all the rest and making new IPs as they always do.



Nintendo is fine. Have lots of old IPs and new IPs from time to time.
People demand new ones but what they really want are games from the old series. So, they are doing a great job managing all those massive assets they created since the 80s.

As an example: What happened with Animal Crossing in Switch is just incredible.
When Miyamoto was developing the original one for the N64 (when was still known as "Animal Forest"), he talked about it in late 2000 or 2001 in the media, Reading him, I was thinking "WTF are you doing creating that kind of game nobody will buy for a machine is also dying with no internet service... -Dreamcast already had Online games, WORLDWIDE, since 2000-).

Well...24 years later, Animal Crossing is a huge franchise, and the Switch game sold more than any Final Fantasy, Resident Evil or Gran Turismo individual game will probably never sell* (HUGE series by then. Even more important than today).

*(Excluding, maybe -I don't know-, the FFXIV online).

So... just let Nintendo do what they do



They have created plenty of new IPs. I want them to dust off some old IPs they've mostly ignored for years if not decades, including F-Zero, Punch-Out, StarTropics, 1080° Snowboarding, and Star Fox.



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I still think there’s an epic action RPG to be had out of Star Fox if they really committed to doing it big with one of their top internal teams. The traditional on-rails missions could still be kept in tact for something like mini-games for how you explore between planets or something.



TL;DR An IP does not make a game, a game makes the IP.

I hate this discussion about IPs that internet seems obsessed with.

Some IPs are formulaic but it doesn't have to be that way.

Example Zelda: LoZ first game created the IP and had non-linear gameplay, AoL same IP completely different gameplay (still non-linear), LttP set the formula for Zelda for many years to come with linear gameplay this formula transfered to 3D-era. The IP seemed to be stuck in LttP formula for many years (some few exceptions). Then BotW dropped new formula leaning more towards LoZ but still so different that if you would do a texture swap you would not make the connection to the Zelda franchise.

Example Mario: From the beginning the IP has been a platformer, a boxing game, a golf game, a puzzle game, a racing game, a jRPG, a fighting game, a football game, a tennis game, a 4x game etc. Why a new IP for everything, it's the game play that makes the game not the IP.

I would even claim that Pokemon as an IP is fairly diverse even if the "main" games are very formulaic. 

Of course Nintendo also has long lived IPs that are very formulaic, in example Metroid. But even that IP at least has a pinball game in its lineup :)

Nintendo is way better than for example Ubisoft that has a bunch of IPs but in recent years a lot of them play basically the same and just feel like a texture swap of each other.