Furukawa says Nintendo wants to work on its main franchises as well as new IP, “constantly thinking about ideas for new consoles”

Speaking with Nikkei, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about what’s next for Animal Crossing fans.

Furukawa spoke broadly about the company’s viewpoints, and noted that “games must be interesting” given other competition and consumers having only so much free time. Nintendo doesn’t simply want to rest on its laurels, so it wants to continue supporting its well-known franchises while also pursuing “new games and new series.”

Furukawa also brought up hardware and how Nintendo is “constantly thinking about ideas for new consoles”. Although many ideas are difficult to realize, the company invests in resources “in case any of these ideas become feasible in future.”

Our full translation of Furukawa’s comments can be found below.

“As we spend more time in our homes, we are becoming increasingly spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. For people to choose to play our games with their limited free time, the games must be interesting. Competition is fierce and we’re not looking at the current situation lightly. We are constantly looking out for new ideas and researching what we can utilize next. In future, we want to not only work on our staple series like Mario and Zelda but also work on new games and new series.

(Regarding the calls for a new Switch model) We’re constantly thinking about ideas for new consoles, but many ideas simply aren’t feasible because of cost or limitations in technology. We devote a lot of resources into developing technology in case any of these ideas become feasible in future.”

Big thanks to Jarop and centurionnugget for contributing to this post.