Last December, the NVC crew pondered if 2023 could be Nintendo’s biggest year ever. Between the launch of games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Wonder, I think it’s safe to say that 2023 has earned a spot on the short list of the greatest years in Nintendo history.
But beyond just games the company is celebrating just as many — if not more — successes in the entertainment space. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Super Nintendo World’s opening in Hollywood, and the Nintendo Live fan event should all be considered as successful as the enormous launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser said as much himself in my interview with him.
While I will always remember Zelda, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Pikmin 4, I will remember 2023 more so as the year Nintendo turned the corner in its long-running mission to transform from a video game publisher into a full-blown entertainment brand.
I know what you’re probably thinking: “Nintendo has always been an entertainment company! It was called the Nintendo Entertainment System!” And you’re right. It’s true that over the years there have been cartoons, toy lines, and entertainment-based activities using Nintendo IP, and that video games themselves are a core pillar of the entertainment business.
It’s not that Nintendo has never dabbled in entertainment pursuits. It’s that prior to this new focus on entertainment, I always felt like Nintendo swept anything non-game related under the rug. Something like The Super Mario Bros. Super Show or the line of Mario Kart K’nex you’d see at Target felt entirely separate from Nintendo’s core video game business. They were afterthoughts. (This, of course, isn’t accounting for Pokémon, which mostly falls outside of Nintendo’s operations.)
But now, Nintendo is finally fully embracing the global appeal of its IP outside of the dedicated gaming audience. I never thought we’d see the day where Shigeru Miyamoto himself introduced Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario in a theatrical film, or popped out of a warp pipe while giving a tour of a shiny new Nintendo theme park. And, Nintendo has ongoing product partnerships with huge household names like LEGO and Hot Wheels, meaning there are more relevant Nintendo toys on store shelves than in the past. Projects like this getting an official Nintendo stamp of approval — whether from Miyamoto himself or on Nintendo’s social channels — goes a long way.
If you still aren’t buying that entertainment is bigger for Nintendo than ever before, look no further than the Nintendo game of the moment, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. While Nintendo said in a recent developer blog that Mario Wonder wasn’t directly influenced by the Mario movie, it definitely seems like they at least took the film into consideration. Longtime Mario veteran Takashi Tezuka said the team was “conscious of creating a game that wouldn’t disappoint” new fans who picked up Wonder after seeing the movie, adding “we dedicated ample budget and time to create the characters with even more care and attention and in greater detail.” Tezuka said something related in a recent interview with NPR, saying, “People who are coming from the Mario movie are going to see that and think ‘this is what Mario does, this is how Mario moves,’ and we wanted them to experience something similar to that.”
In another example, Nintendo quietly updated the box art for 2024’s Princess Peach: Showtime! with a slight character redesign that more closely resembles the Princess’ appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It’s fair to argue Nintendo is taking inspiration from its $1 billion box office smash hit — even if they refuse to outright admit it. 30 years ago, you wouldn’t have ever expected Link to shout “excuuuuse me, Princess” in a video game. But I think going forward the lines between Nintendo’s video game and entertainment products will be more blurred than ever.
2023 feels like the year it’s all come together for Nintendo’s entertainment growth, but it’s been in the works for a long time now. Back in 2015, when there were far fewer people paying attention to Nintendo amidst the depths of the Wii U generation, Nintendo announced its partnership with Universal to develop theme park attractions based on Nintendo games. In 2018, Nintendo’s deal with Illumination to produce The Super Mario Bros. Movie became official.
And while Miyamoto doesn’t feel like he deserves to be compared to Walt Disney (there’s that Nintendo modesty striking again), it’s not hard to envision a future where Nintendo’s movies and theme parks are looked at through the same lens as Disney’s. In Kat Bailey’s interview with Miyamoto earlier this year, the Mario creator said he was considering the concept of creating “Nintendo as a brand.”
“I think that sometimes Nintendo gets tossed in with other companies in the field of video games, but we’ve got to think that Nintendo’s biggest strength is its characters and how that is used in different types of media beyond just games… Finding the best media for the characters to thrive in is something we really want to keep an eye on,” Miyamoto said.
We can see that the decade-long journey to expand the global appeal of Nintendo characters is unfolding right before our eyes. But crucially, Nintendo’s rapid expansion and success in its entertainment endeavors haven’t pulled any focus away from the reason we all love Nintendo: great games. While Nintendo will certainly continue to explore its theme park and movie businesses, I have no doubt that video games will always remain the heart of the Nintendo brand.
Nintendo has been around for a very long time, and 2023 marks the start of the next era. Earlier this year, I visited the original Nintendo building in Kyoto, Japan, where the Yamauchi family started a small playing card company in 1889. The next day, I visited the pair of modern office buildings where games like Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder were developed. It struck me just how adaptable Nintendo is and always has been. I’m completely on board to see how this 134-year-old company continues to evolve in the future.