Nintendo’s Aonuma: If we don’t change we might die

The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has admitted Nintendo could face a tough future if the company doesn’t shake things up with its game development.

Speaking to Engadget, Aonuma spoke frankly on Nintendo’s reliance on classic IP, and claimed the console giant need to evolve to move forward.

He also said that if it continued to develop remakes, such as The Wind Waker HD for Wii U and A Link Between Worlds for 3DS, that he also wouldn’t be able to improve himself.

“If we don’t change we might die,” said Aonuma.

“We need to evolve. Things need to change. Things need to grow.”

Aonuma went on to say that the impression he got from some fans was that maybe Nintendo’s reliance on its stalwart franchises were growing stale. He countered that however by suggesting if Nintendo changed too much, he was concerned fans would turn their backs on titles such as Zelda.

Given the apparently slow release of first-party titles for the Wii U, at least until this week’s Nintendo Direct conference which announced a more promising release slate, the development veteran also admitted that the company needed to make decisions quicker, despite the large investments of time and money required to make HD games.

He added that Nintendo classically took its time when making games, but that this was almost to the company’s detriment.

"The way we make games is we’re very careful. We’re very thorough. We’re very detailed,” he said.

“We take a long time analysing the different parts of a game… almost to our detriment. Almost too careful. I think the need is there for us to make decisions more quickly, weigh the risks [and] see what the payoff is.”

Image: Zelda Universe