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Iwata on the 'New Super Mario' series being 1 per platform, game similarities, Mario for quality, DLC

by rawmeatcowboy
17 August 2012
GN Version 4.0
The following blurbs come from Satoru Iwata...

On the New Super Mario Bros. series...

"We only create a New Super Mario Bros. title one per platform. I think we'll probably go ahead and continue at that pace. That being said, that's probably [Mario creator Shigeru] Miyamoto's choice, so I can't give you a 100% guarantee that that's the pace we'll continue at."

On New Super Mario Bros. 2/U comparisons...

"They do share a name and there are some components that are similar. That being said, these are two very unique and separate titles…We have a Mario you can play in the palm of your hand and a Mario you can play seated in front of your TV. I believe the two titles are unique enough that I wouldn't say that I'm super-worried that people are going to be confused."

On Mario being synonymous with quality...

"But I think what Mario has come to symbolize for a lot of people is sort of this quality guarantee. They think, 'It's got Mario. We know that it's a good experience.' We want him to become 'Mr. Video Game', the guy. That was the basis. I believe he fulfilled that dream."

On Nintendo's handling of DLC...

"I think, when the player has exhausted what's in an existing piece of software, when there are no more challenges and there is nothing more they can do, if we then introduce a new level or a new character—something new for them—we just increased their motivation to want to go back; we've also increased the amount of time they're going to enjoy that software. And one thing Nintendo has determined as a company policy, what we are not going to do is create a full game and then say, ‘let's hold this back for DLC.' That's not our plan. We're definitely not doing that. It's an extreme example, but I think there are examples of games where you get that initial purchase—the very core part of the game—and everything else around it is all DLC. However, if you do that I believe customers will have no motivation to go out and buy the retail package to begin with.

So our goal is to create DLC in such a way that consumers do not feel that they have been cheated or deceived. Now I believe there are people out there, readers, who have are worried about that, and we just want to ensure them that we have that in mind and want them to know that that's not what we are planning on doing."

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