Why Nintendo's Games Could Release For The Switch 2 Faster Than Expected

The gaming industry is currently facing several headwinds. Games are becoming increasingly more expensive to make as development cycles routinely stretch to five or more years. If a project doesn’t sell well enough it can easily sink a development studio. Nintendo, however, is looking to avoid these stumbling blocks of as it enters its Switch 2 era.

During a Q&A with shareholders, Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, spoke of the challenges the company faces. “The game business has always been a high-risk business, and we recognize that rising development costs are increasing that risk.” Now that it has more powerful hardware available, it would be easy to fall into the trap of making sprawling worlds that are more graphically impressive.

Instead, the company is looking for a different path forward to minimize that risk. It believes that it’s “possible to develop game software with shorter development periods that still offer consumers a sense of novelty.” In theory this should be a viable option for Nintendo as it has been focusing more on gameplay with its latest titles because of the limitations of the original Switch hardware.


Although shortening development times isn’t the only solution the company is exploring. It’s also going to be making investments that it hopes will lead to a more efficient development cycles. It will be interesting to see if Nintendo ends up leveraging AI to introduce those efficiencies. It’s a very traditional company that can oftentimes seem resistant to using new technologies, so it might not be ready to make that jump.

Pricing strategy is another way the company hopes to get more profit out of every game. While many thought Grand Theft Auto VI would be the game to push beyond the standard $70 price tag, it was Nintendo with Mario Kart World that ripped that band-aid off with a price of $80. Not every game will hit that price point, though, as the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza will still cost $70.

These seem like prudent strategies for Nintendo and the the gaming industry as a whole. Hopefully it works out well for Nintendo and other developers and publishers can follow suit.