Companies like Ubisoft, Activision, and EA refresh some of their titles on an annual basis, meaning that every year we can look forward to a new Assassin’s Creed, new Call of Duty, and new Battlefield. However when it comes to Nintendo’s franchises, if you were hoping for an annual refresh you might be disappointed.
Speaking to the folks at the Examiner, Nintendo of America’s Scott Moffitt explains why the company will not annualize its titles such as Super Smash Bros. or Mario Kart. According to him, “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.”
He adds that instead of just releasing a new game, Nintendo opts for releasing new content in the form of DLCs instead. “For fans who love [Mario Kart], we’ve released extra content over time so that it keeps the game fresh and allows them to experience more than they could when they originally bought the game.”
That being said, some of Nintendo’s franchises are exempt to this rule, like Pokemon where they are more open to annual releases. “If you look at the Pokemon franchise, we have released multiple core games for the 3DS. We like to give fans something every year, but [for] something like Mario Kart or Smash Bros.,there may only be one version of that franchise in the whole console cycle.”
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