It looks like the Big N is trying to expand its portfolio of characters outside video games, which means that we might see the likes of iconic characters (such as Mario and Link) transcend into collaborative works, movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment in the foreseeable future.
The above information comes from publication site nintendolife.com. Additionally, the site has an excerpt up which depicts Nintendo’s game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, talking to Famitsu in a 12-page long interview.
If you don’t know, as of last year, Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Fukukawa, elaborated on the company expanding beyond video games to increase the number of people who have access to its IPs.
Well, it looks like Miyamoto is echoing that same sentiment as Fukukawa in that the following translation reads:
“We want to expand our video game characters to a variety of settings – not just in games, all while keeping their value. In other words, we’ll be collaborating with various other companies. If we’re able to accomplish that, we can create more opportunities for people to make contact with our characters on a much larger scale than usual.”
From here, and this is just me speculating, we could see an increase in more stores focused on Nintendo peripherals, toys, and merchandise. Also, we could see the Big N collaborate with other companies to bolster the aforesaid materials.
Alternatively, Nintendo might increase its advertisement efforts across foods, snacks, and other items.
Contrary to that, and I hope this isn’t the case — especially in current year — we could see Nintendo increase the appearance of its IPs in the TV or mini-series space.
Moreover, the above quote reveals that the Big N doesn’t want to devalue its characters by prostituting them and putting them in things that would make them become an eye-sore.
With all of that said, we do know from nintendolife.com that Nintendo is moving into theme parks with the assistance of Universal Parks and Resorts. We also know that Nintendo is working on a motion picture with Illumination, which is slated to hit the silver screen sometime in 2022.
