By Sickr on July 7, 2025

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has informed investors that the Kyoto-based company is considering shorter development times for certain games to help offset the rising cost of video game development. With hardware and games becoming more and more advanced the costs are steadily rising with longer development time just one factor in costs spiralling. Mr. Furukawa said it is something they will consider moving forward and this is likely to effect smaller titles as opposed to mainline Mario and Zelda titles.

I am concerned that the improved performance of Nintendo Switch 2 will lead to higher game development costs, which in turn could result in higher software prices and ultimately a decrease in the gaming population. What measures are you considering to address this?

Recent game software development has become larger in scale and longer in duration, resulting in higher development costs. The game business has always been a high-risk business, and we recognize that rising development costs are increasing that risk. Our development teams are devising various ways to maintain our traditional approach to creating games amidst the increasing scale and length of development. We believe it is important to make the necessary investments for more efficient development. We also believe it is possible to develop game software with shorter development periods that still offer consumers a sense of novelty. We see this as one potential solution to the concern about rising development costs and software prices, and we will explore it from various angles within the company.