Nintendo President Says Longer Game Development Cycles Are "Unavoidable"

During the recent shareholder Q&A, Shuntaro Furukawa mentioned how game development today is "more prolonged, more complex, and more advanced", and to deal with this Nintendo must continually expand its "development resources" and make "necessary investments".

[gold_drake]

i agree but i also think console generations need to last longer cause of it.

i mean we are half through the current gen and we havent had alot of games that took full advantage of the tech yet ha but Sony and Microsoft wont take that risk unfortunately, imo.

[_SilverHawk_]

I'm hoping that switch 2 games quality and scrutiny is as if they were ps4,ps5 and xbox games because too many times I've bought switch games where the performance issues and graphics were horrible but were glossed over by reviewers and other fanatics. There are so many powerful and affordable hybrid consoles available now so there shouldn't be any excuses.

[Cacabunga]

it always took them a complete gen to release a new Zelda game..
we also haven't got a new 3D Mario since Odyssey like 7 years ago. Same for Wonder that came out 10+ years after Bros U.

[Michiel1989]

@caca because they don't do sequels for their mainline mario games with the exception of Galaxy. I like it, means that you get a fresh experience every time. It also works for them since most of their blockbuster 1st party games become smash hits. There is in fact correlation between taking your time and making a good game.

[Kneetos]

What is with you people
You keep flip flopping between "the switch is a handheld and doesn't compete with the two main consoles to "why isn't the switch compared to the ps5 or xbs"

News flash, no one cares about graphics, and no one cared about frame rates till Sony started prioritising 60+ fps

[VariantAEC]

@Kneetos
"...no one cares about graphics, and no one cared about frame rates till Sony started prioritising 60+ fps[.]"

If that were even true, PS2 is when 60FPS became a normal target for PS games not PS5. Basically every game I own on PS2 targets and largely sticks to 60FPS. At this point PS1 and PS3 are the anomalies with even those systems having numerous 60FPS games however uncommon. On PS2 we have all the Ace Combat games (the holy trinity), Ratchet and Clank (4 titles), Jak and Daxter (3 games), Haven: Call of the King (the first No Mans Sky/Squadron 42), GT3/4. Even the majority of demos I remember were targeting or stuck to 60FPS. All PS2 platformers that I know of were 60FPS... Super Mario Sunshine was 30FPS, but it did have very good graphics. Uh, wait, I thought PS was the one pushing graphics, not Nintendo? In reality if graphics didn't matter Nintendo and really no one would be improving on that totally useless feature of gaming because it would be completely useless... but everyone is doing that. If no one ever cared about graphics why are better graphics the most requested feature of Switch 2? No one is saying I want 3rd parties at 60FPS with ugly smeary visuals at 300p they want better performance **AND** better graphics (at higher resolutions too).

But no one cares about graphics... 🤔

[franwex]

Yep. If we’re simply talking about Nintendo, I feel like this gen did last a good while though.

[P_Bomb]

Switch gen has definitely lasted.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

The Switch gen is insane, and the games' library for that thing is massive, the only reason it feels long in the tooth is that the hardware is so under powered.

[DarXyde]

We did have that moment with the X360 and PS3. That was a pretty long generation.

Personally, I didn't mind because the games were great, however the there is valid concern in trying to compete against mobile devices with static hardware. And in the age of AI, there is risk in not having the latest hardware to support the latest AI functionality. We know they're pushing for that.

[CobraKai]

I agree. Let them push the hardware till it’s completely exhausted like with the previous generations

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Longer dev cycles are unavoidable doesn't mean you can't make them more efficient and cheaper with new technologies, and methods to things efficient.

[Profchaos]

You can make tools better and hardware faster as Cerny stated ps5 has the fastest time to triangle to date but game Dev takes longer because they want to aim high. I think that's why there's so many companies delving into the vaults of their past and releasing games like quake 2 hd to just have something on shelves while their big games like doom are polished up

[Demetrius]

Some truth to it, but it would be dope for most devs to up support for certain titles, why is it only no mans sky devs are the main ones who refine their game. Gotham knights for example is so much fun I don't compare it to the arkham series. Gk coulda got more updates but support stopped, forspoken coulda atleast got more support and other titles, devs just give up so easily nowadays on certain games.

[neutralgamer1992]

That's because if publishers don't see their returns early they just give up to next game

[Goodguy01]

Well covid had a huge impact after all. And games are adding more content and upping their visuals more and more with each year.

[Blad3runner00]

Longer dev cycles on Switch?
It's not like the hardware is pushing any graphical boundaries.

If anything the Switch, to an extent, should not be having the same long development cycle issues that exist on PS5/SeriesX/PC. The graphics barely reach PS4 levels, and that came out late 2013?

[neomahi]

Nintendo always uses significantly older hardware. That makes no sense.

The PlayStation 3 was deemed as being difficult to develop for and devs wanted nothing to do with it for some time. The PS4 was the solution to that that would make it significantly easier using off the shelf parts rather than proprietary innovative components. Naughty Dog developed: The Last of Us Remastered, Uncharted 4, Uncharted Lost Legacy and The Last of Us Part II. So far, Naughty Dog have made nothing on the PS5.

If the PS3 was so notorious to develop for for its complications and games ran so horribly, and the PS4 and hence PS5 use off the shelf PC parts..... I don't see what the problem is. Insomniac on the PS3 made: Resistance Fall of Man, Resistance 2, and Resistance 3. Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction, Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Fuze. If the PS3 was such a nightmare and developers wouldn't develop on it..... How?

It's just excuses, this is all just excuses and the PS3 and thus the design of the PS4 is plenty sufficient proof or evidence of that

[VariantAEC]

PS4 did not have "off the shelf parts rather than proprietary innovative components" in fact the sole reason PS4 has video recording is because PS included proprietary innovative components. It's also why PS4 Pro was handing in better results than Xbox One X in some games too even though Xbox One X had a larger on paper advantage than PS4 had with Xbox One/S (and also PS5/XSX). PS never uses off-the-shelf components. That was always what Xbox did. They claim they basically jammed an off-the-shelf GPU into [early post; additions BTP] the original Xbox.

Nintendo also never used off-the-shelf parts though their HW was never so creative in its architecture. What made Nintendo creative is how they would change how people interact with their games and PS gave Nintendo a run for their money real early with PS ultimately surpassing them on most levels in that respect with PS Move and then completely surpassing Nintendo's interactivity with PSVR and then PSVR2.

[Profchaos]

It's absolutely unavoidable however what Nintendo does better than most is balance their smaller scoped projects to release in between the large projects.

So they still have heavy hitters but they also being out titles that have a smaller scope and scale which are still quite good like the upcoming Zelda echos game or the previous remakes of paper maio, links awakening etc.

Since merging the handheld development pipeline with the console pipeline their output has flown really well.

It may be a case of these large scale games taking years but the seem to have the resources and to balance well so in a single year we would het ttok, Metroid prime remaster and Mario Wonder all in all a solid year and the year many thought we be the consoles send off year. But I guess not

[shaenoide]

Especially when you can no longer carry the Wii's game library.

[WolfSeed]

With generative AI, AI programming supplementation, improvements in UE5 and a management structure to consolidate the technologies, development time can even be reduced.