Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer, Reggie Fils-Aime, has talked about Nintendo’s future as an entertainment company, rather than strictly being about gaming, during an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. Doing so would mark a shift into a wider array of media, rather than just the consumer electronics and gaming they are presently known for.
During the discussion reported on by Arstechnica, Reggie identified three core “pieces of the business,” being the video game company everyone knows and loves, their recently developed mobile gaming arm and their broader work with their IP in other mediums. These mediums include the new themed areas coming to Universal Parks and Resorts in Osaka, Orlando and Hollywood, as well as a Mario film with Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio behind Despicable Me.
Reggie discussed the importance of their IP, including Mario, Zelda and Pokemon adding, “how we leverage these across a variety of entertainment platforms is how we’re looking to grow the company.” Of course, the Mario movie seems like a big leap in this direction. Rumours have long circulated that Nintendo were collaborating with Netflix on a Zelda television series, rumours downplayed by former Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, back in 2015.
It seems possible that such deals, including the partnership with Illumination, will become more frequent as Nintendo hope to grow and expand across the entertainment industry. Hopefully, there will be more Nintendo films and television series on the horizon.
