Nintendo has a plethora of beloved franchises, ranging from household names like Mario and Pokemon, to niche franchises such as Fire Emblem and F-Zero. But despite the popularity of these franchises, it seems that when it comes to getting games in these beloved franchises, fans are left to wait for years at a time. While franchises like Madden and Call of Duty get yearly releases, Nintendo fans are often stuck with one game from a particular series a console generation, if that at all. And according to Scott Moffitt, Vice President of Sales at Nintendo of America, there’s a good reason for that.
In an interview with the Examiner, Moffitt elaborated a bit on why the company refuses to release say a new Mario Kart every year, even though they probably could. “We tend not to annualize our franchises”, he said. “There’s not a new Mario Kart every year. What we’ve tried to do with the Wii U is first, create a fully featured really enjoyable game that has something for everybody, has surprises that you’ll discover as you play through levels and it gives you a good amount of quality entertainment.” Moffitt also added that with the company’s recent shift to embrace DLC, games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. 4 can still be updated and enjoyed months after the game is done. However, he also mentions that not every series is suited to follow this, using Pokemon as an example.
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