Ancel: Innovation is Nintendo’s greatest strength and weakness

Nintendo’s greatest strength and weakness both lie in innovation, says Rayman creator Michel Ancel.

Speaking to OXM, via Nintendo Everything, Ancel said the biggest surprises in the industry often came from Nintendo, and was looking forward to what comes next.

He said though that innovation often involves a huge amount of risk, as company’s control the market and its reaction.

"Nintendo’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is innovation," he said.

"It’s a company that takes a lot of risks. Few people understand that innovation involves risk-taking, because you don’t control everything on the market.

"Today, the biggest surprises seem to come from Nintendo. People may like those surprises or not, but that’s a fact. Miiverse was a surprise, the GamePad was a surprise. What will come next? I can’t wait!"

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently said the company was unafraid of failure, and was always looking to challenge the status quo and innovate.

He explained that the console giant was not good at competing, so always strived to create something new.

“If you do the same thing as others, it will wear you out,” said Iwata.

“Nintendo is not good at competing so we always have to challenge [the status quo] by making something new, rather than competing in an existing market.”

He added: “It’s often called the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, looking for something that no one else is working on. When we created the DS, people said it was strange to have a dual display, and people said elderly people don’t play games. But they did. Opening the first door is when things are most interesting.”