Iwata vows that Nintendo IP won’t go multi-platform

Don’t expect Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong to appear on non-Nintendo platforms anytime soon.

That’s the message from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who says that while the move may be of short-term benefit it would not be in the long-term interests of the platform holder.

"If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit," he told CVG.

"However, I’m really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all.

"What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software – by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other," he said.

"And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world."

Nintendo has struggled in the home console market since the days of the SNES – the spectacular success of the Wii aside – and this has led to many calls for the company to ‘do a Sega’ and develop its most cherished IP for rival hardware.

Indeed, industry veteran Ian Livingstone said in June that Nintendo should have their IP on every platform otherwise a whole generation of young people will miss out on their games”.