Oh dear god, not again! I don’t think I’m emotionally or physically ready to risk another Super Mario Bros. movie. I still wake up some nights in a cold sweat because of the terrifying images the 1993 movie has forever burned into my brain. Poor Bob Hoskins getting bent over the fence as… actually, never mind. Point being, it seems Nintendo is diversifying itself and expanding into the movie business. Something Nintendo has been doing a lot of lately, even branching out into the smartphone market with Miitomo and the upcoming Pokémon game.
A spokesperson for Nintendo announced they were in the process of making plans and talking with film studios about making movies. Who will these movies feature? While there is no solid answer it seems Nintendo is open to using many of their popular characters, which there are plenty of. When will this happen? The plan is set up to stretch out over the next 5 years so I wouldn’t plan on seeing anything until at least 2020. It seems Nintendo will also not be attempting live action again (thank god) but will use 3D animation; much like the recent Ratchet and Clank movie.
The real question is why Nintendo is trying to branch out so much recently, because this isn’t the first time. Early on when Sega and Nintendo still dominated the market they tried to branch out by porting Zelda and Mario to the CD-I, which did not go well. Of course there was Super Mario Bros. but everyone knows that tragic tale. Generally Nintendo is known for keeping everything in house with their own consoles. Something that may have caused more damage than good these days as smartphones force their way into the gaming scene. Nintendo has made a number of Pokémon movies over the years but those are tied more to the show than the game.
Evidence suggest that Nintendo might not be doing so great these days, posting decreasing profits for multiple quarters now. The main cause seems to be the Wii U’s struggle to keep up with Sony and Microsoft, posting only a fraction of the sales. Already this year Nintendo has posted a loss of over 200 million. Even more to the point, Nintendo has announced plans to sell their majority stake in the Seattle Mariners to fund the movie project, a stake they value somewhere in the billions. While Nintendo may have defeated Sony in the handheld market it still can’t beat the growing smartphone. Which is ironic considering how long they said smartphones didn’t pose a threat.
It’s clear that Nintendo hopes to revitalize itself, between expanding onto the smartphone, the release of the mysterious NX next March and now breaking into the movies. It’s hard to say if it will work in the long run. Nintendo may have some of the most memorable series and characters in the gaming world but that can only go so far. While they have the characters they rarely seem to use them these days. How many times has the new Zelda on the Wii U been delayed now or how long has it been since a real Metroid? While this move into the movies sounds promising it may not matter if Nintendo continues to ignore what made it great; dishing out new IP’s as often as the World Cup. You can read my related post on games becoming movies at Top 10 Game Franchises That Deserve a Movie
