Shigeru Miyamoto on How Virtual Console Changed his Stance Towards Making Another Mario Movie

Nintendo has released the Japanese version of their Q&A from their investor’s meeting earlier this week, and in one particular answer, Mario creator and Nintendo Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto talks about how and why he changed his stance towards Mario in film – thanks to working on Virtual Console.

Here’s the highlight below:

For touchpoints for Nintendo IP, especially the Mario IP, I understand that currently you have the Switch and smartphones, as well as the theme park and upcoming movie. However, how do you separate each medium? I believe that there must be some sort of theme per medium, and not just ‘exposing Mario onto every platform’, and I’d like you to tell us what the similarities and differences are per touchpoint.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Creative Fellow: “We do not do something like separating our IP development strategy depending on the touchpoint. For example, regarding IP development into movies, I was originally against Nintendo expanding into video-making, but am currently involved personally in using our company’s IP in film production; and the background behind this change  is because Nintendo has re-released many games via Virtual Console.

Our assets are our software, and even 30 years on, they are still active. However, unfortunately, when the original hardware compatible with the software is gone, we have no choice but to port it onto new hardware. After experiencing this process of bringing older software onto new hardware many times, I began to consider that our content business would be able to develop even further if we were able to combine our long-beloved software with that of video assets, and utilize them together for extended periods.

Basically, it’s not that ‘I want to make a Mario movie’, but that I began to consider that ‘we should bring more Nintendo content into the field of video-making’. With films, the amount of people who would contact our IP would widen, and increase the amount of people engaging with our IP. Then, we’d be able to further increase the spread of our media via video.”