Nintendo’s annual franchise, Pokémon, is one of the most popular franchises. Pokémon is also one of Nintendo’s only franchises that releases annually.
With that in mind, Nintendo isn’t moving to annual releases for Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers. Both games, which have received DLC for the first time on the Wii U, only get one game per console.
Executive VP of Sales at Nintendo of America, Scot Moffitt, sat down with The Examiner for a full interview regarding the unique one game per console release schedule.
Nintendo’s decision to not have annual releases for games has never hindered the popularity of the franchises, and has yet to effect the company in the long run. with the NX coming out soon, Nintendo has stated that they are not giving up on the Wii U.
With two consoles and one handheld on the market, if Nintendo considers this to be a part of the same life cycle, we will have to see if we get additional releases of the Smash Brothers and Mario Kart franchise.
Scott Moffitt wrapped up the interview with The Examiner by explaining how Nintendo works differently from other companies.
It all depends on the franchise, the developer and what new ideas they can bring to the franchise to move the gameplay forward and keep the franchise fresh. I think we always need to innovate and we need to always bring new ideas and new thoughts, but they have to be sufficient enough to justify the next release. Small, incremental changes may not be worth a whole new release