Nintendo has a plan to tackle the rising costs of video game development and potentially start making select titles more quickly, the company’s leadership said. However, details on the matter are currently slim, and the only thing that’s certain is that this mysterious plan won’t be applicable to all future Nintendo games.
The length of game development cycles has historically grown in stages. Until the mid-1990s, what was considered a big-budget game was typically completed within one or two years, as with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The transition from 2D to 3D graphics in the late 1990s extended typical development time to around three years. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation marked the first era in which AAA games regularly took more than three years to complete, sometimes up to five. Today, a five-year development cycle is considered the minimum for most AAA titles, with a few exceptions such as FromSoftware games that rely heavily on reused assets.
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During a recent Q&A session with shareholders, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa fielded a question about this state of affairs, framed as a big-picture concern: that the Switch 2’s significantly greater power compared to its predecessor could lead to higher game development costs, increased software prices, and ultimately—and counterintuitively—a “decrease in the gaming population.” The executive confirmed that Nintendo is currently making “the necessary investments for more efficient development,” thus reiterating a pledge he made around this time last year. However, Furukawa also provided a bit more detail on the matter, more than is typical for a shareholder Q&A setting.
Nintendo Sees ‘One Potential Solution’ to Current Game Dev Cycles
“We also believe it is possible to develop game software with shorter development periods that still offer consumers a sense of novelty,” Furukawa said. He labeled this train of thought as “one potential solution” to the rising video game development costs and software prices, stating that Nintendo “will explore it from various angles within the company.” The executive did not elaborate any further, though this statement itself suggests the potential solution will only be applicable to some projects.
We also believe it is possible to develop game software with shorter development periods that still offer consumers a sense of novelty. We see this as one potential solution to the concern about rising development costs and software prices, and we will explore it from various angles within the company.
Nintendo Could Be Returning to AA Games
As the transitions from 2D to 3D and from 3D to HD graphics demonstrated, asset creation has long been one of the biggest bottlenecks in game development. The higher the visual fidelity, the longer AAA games—where consumer expectations are highest—take to produce. Furukawa’s comments could therefore be interpreted as a hint that Nintendo may shift more focus toward AA titles in the future. Until the mid-2000s, the company regularly invested in several such franchises, including Excite, BoxBoy, and Pushmo.
Where Did All the AA Games Go?
AA games declined in popularity among major publishers for reasons similar to those that have lengthened AAA development cycles: increased asset requirements, greater technological complexity, and larger teams that are harder to coordinate. These factors drove up costs, making smaller projects less economically attractive and pushing publishers to prioritize fewer, larger-scale bets. If Nintendo is indeed considering AA projects as “one potential solution” to current development challenges, it may also be rethinking how such games can be produced more efficiently than in the past.
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