Bill Trinen on why Nintendo revisits existing franchises
If you’re a 3DS owner, it’d be tough to find something shown in yesterday’s Nintendo Direct not to be excited about. New Zelda and Yoshi games are coming, a new Mario Party entry is on the way, and there are other titles in the pipeline such as Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario Golf: World Tour.
One observation about yesterday’s announcements: Nintendo’s own content is based on existing franchises rather than IP.
Nintendo director of product marketing Bill Trinen explained why the Big N continues to revisit franchises while speaking with GameSpot:
“There’s a couple of driving reasons why you keep seeing a lot of the same franchises come back. One is just the way that we develop games. What we don’t do is start off and say we’re going to develop a new game in X series or what are we going to do with it? It’s really more about what is a fun and interesting new gameplay element or gameplay mechanic? How do we develop that? And then what kind of a character or what series is that really best suited to?”
“And so, in a lot of the cases, if you’ve got an idea that’s really fun and really interesting, pairing that with, for example, Mario, then that takes a fun and interesting gameplay mechanic and puts it with a character that makes it instantly appealing to a very wide range of people.”
Trinen added that interest from fans is another reason why Nintendo relies on its franchises for new releases:
“Of course the other approach is, as you frequently see with Nintendo Directs and announcements like this, when we do announce something like a new Yoshi’s Island, there’s a tremendous fan reaction to that because they want it [laughs].”
Trinen wrapped up by discussing the balance in needing to “to find a way to bridge that gap between what are the new experiences” while also providing fans with “what they’re looking for in terms of new installments in existing series”.
“You do on the one hand want to try to find a way to bridge that gap between what are the new experiences that we can offer? How can we give the fans what they’re looking for in terms of new installments in existing series? And it is a balance that you’ve got to find.”
