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Nintendo President Mentions Downloadable Stages For Future Mario Games

By Ishaan . January 30, 2012 . 9:30am

Nintendo President Mentions Downloadable Stages For Future Mario Games

Answering questions from Nintendo’s investors at a recent Q&A session, president Satoru Iwata, touched once again upon the appreciation of the Japanese yen combined with the price drop of the Nintendo 3DS, and how both factors have led to losses for Nintendo in the ongoing fiscal year.

 

Iwata says that while Nintendo will begin selling the Nintendo 3DS at a profit in the next fiscal year — it currently sells the device below cost — this alone will not be enough to return the company to profitability. Profits will need to come from software sales of key titles.

 

Nintendo are in the habit of releasing popular games and having them sell for for long periods of time. The Mario Kart games on the Wii and DS are examples of this, both having sold over 25 million copies over an extended period of several years. Iwata believes that in the case of the 3DS, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land will serve this purpose.

 

One way to ensure that games released in the future have a longer lifespan is through DLC, Iwata says.

 

With DLC, Nintendo’s primary goal will be to keep word of mouth alive among consumers for a longer period, instead of having them complete the game once, and then ceasing to mention it again. Iwata points to Wii Fit Plus, which was a disc-based expansion for Wii Fit, as an example. In the future, Nintendo could consider releasing downloadable training regiments and games for a title like Wii Fit.

 

More specifically, Iwata mentions Super Mario games as an avenue for downloadable content as well. Recently, Iwata confirmed the development of a new 2D side-scrolling Mario game for the Nintendo 3DS. There’s a good chance we’ll see downloadable stages for this game.

 

“As I referred to before, for example, this is the idea of supplying new stages to Super Mario users who want to play the game more but have completed the game and lost interest in the existing stages,” Iwata shares. “This will not only give us new profits but will lengthen the life of a product, in that it will never be out of fashion and can keep attracting public attention as long as many people play it.”


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  • http://gloopyeegra.wordpress.com/ Arla

    Neat!

  • http://twitter.com/DanijoEX DanijoEX

    I find that hard to believe, that financial problems would push Nintendo to maintaining their profits/money through DLC. 

    I’m not sure how they will handle that/or do, but whatever works for them.

  • http://twitter.com/Laith_Rem Laith Rem

    Before everyone gets mad and starts shouting at Nintendo, let’s wait until we see if the cost of the DLC is fair to the content offered.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Miranda-Salazar/643669155 Kevin Miranda Salazar

    I usually hate games with DLC content (Stares at Square-Enix) but let’s see how Ninty does it, as long as there’s not any annoying exclusives, keep them available to everyone, reasonable prices and they keep releasing these for a long period of time then it’ll be fine with it and I’ll be happy to buy em :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/juan.m.m.s.mdp Juan Manuel M. Suárez

    It’s not Nintendo’s fault the market gravitates towards DLC content. Square Enix / Sega have been doing it decently so far with Dissidia / Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (as examples). One thing that can be said about Nintendo is that they don’t half ass so I doubt they’ll be scamming people with poor content~.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Farid-Belkacemi/1073052585 Farid Belkacemi

      Maybe PS2 Infinity but concerning Dissidia, I don’t understand why you’re calling these DLC decent : music & outfits were in the game day one back in the day… Man, I miss those days.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Miranda-Salazar/643669155 Kevin Miranda Salazar

      While I agree the DLC costumes from Dissidia were awesome and in the cheapest price you’ll ever see I personally hated the pre-order costumes and region exclusives. Sure these would’ve become available later on like KH Cloud on EU but then they suddely dropped the DLC activity in such a short period of time, the people in USA never met the awesomeness of KH Squall costume :/
      That kinda kills the purpose of the DLC don’t you think? The idea is to deliver extra content that either it couldn’t enter all in a disk/cardridge or to add something else that they didn’t came up with in the moment of development or keep the game’s hype for a loong while with constant releases and it should be delivered to every one that bought the game.
      012 had a promising future on the DLC department, everyone was excited about it but it lasted real short, they didn’t even used a second DLC slot of the 9 each character had and some even didn’t got one, they made good lot of exclusives which it was very annoying and even if you could trade DLC codes with someone it was useless since they were incompartible between regions… what the f**…
      Tl;dr: Square made a mediocre work releasing the DLC, it lasted very short and the exclusives that should have been released a good while later never met the light since they abandoned the game suddenly, it left you wanting so much more :/

  • http://twitter.com/Xander_VJ David García Abril

    I got a baaaaaad feeling about this…

    • chibiwall

      “This will not only give us new profits but will lengthen the life of a product…”
      Fear? muahaahha

    • James Beatty

      Nintendo has mentioned that they want to make GOOD dlc, they want to give you a finished product (an actually complete game) and then give you more content after wards instead of selling you data that’s already on the disc. 

  • Di_Elle

    DLC, in theory, is a great idea. It’s just that in practice it tends to lead to paying more for content that should have been (and often was) already in the game. I trust Nintendo more than most, though, so I say we wait to see how they handle this before we make any judgments.

    • kupomogli

      You trust Nintendo?  Delaying a game for a year just to put it on their new console first just to get sales.  Admitting they overpriced the 3DS by such a high amount because of the reaction that they got from it.  The only first party developer in which their biggest titles never drop in price for a good four to five years, even when they’re not topping the sales charts.  Super Mario 64 DS is still $29.99.  Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7 are the exact same price.

      If Nintendo could get away with it, they’d threaten companies like they did in the NES days and force developers to develop only for them.  Nintendo is a great first party “developer,” but as a company, I dislike their business tactics.

      If any company doesn’t earn your trust, it’s Nintendo.

      • http://twitter.com/ShadowJetX Edward Sayese

        Back when I was working at Toys’R'Us last month, MK DS was actually $5 more then MK7. And its only recently that they lowered the price on some the games like mario galaxy and twilight princess to about $19.99-$29.99. Hell, even Brawl is still selling for about $49.99.

      • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

        Ya let’s just end this conversation right here. You going to compare Nintendo to what Sony has done or even Microsoft this generation. No company is with out fault, but none of the things you mention affect your choice to buy their product. You still have the choice to not deal with any of that. Now when you buy a Xbox only for it to RROD in a matter of hours, days, or weeks. Then that’s a major problem. When you remove options from already paid for consoles with no refunds that’s a problem. How about not telling your userbase about a online attack that stole their CC information for a month. Ya When Nintendo reaches those levels of customer disservice. I will stop gaming altogether.

        • kupomogli

          Actually it was three days before they were aware and the userbase of the PSN attack was told a day after.  So four days, not a month.

          • Nemesis_Dawn

            You’re totally right in your points, but it’s not worth arguing with them. If Iwata proposed jabbing people in the eyes with a white hot poker, as long as it had a Nintendo logo on it, people would line up for it and defend Iwata’s decision to blind them all.

          • James Beatty

            No, it’s just that Kupomogli is saying that nintendo is the most evil company ever, which is not true. You don’t need to be a nintendo fan to realize that he is wrong. No need to hate

      • Tom_Phoenix

        “The only first party developer in which their biggest titles never drop in price for a good four to five years, even when they’re not topping the sales charts.  Super Mario 64 DS is still $29.99.  Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7 are the exact same price.”

        Except Nintendo isn’t the one who determines the price of the games; retailers are. Sure, Nintendo (like any other product manufacturer) provides a SUGGESTED retail price, but retailers are under no obligation to sell it at that price and they can choose whatever price they see fit.

        Anyway, the reason why (some) Nintendo games don’t drop in price is beacuse they (like the article mentions) keep selling for many years. Even when they are not topping the charts, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still steadily selling. Infact, when they are not in the top 10/20 on the chart, they frequently tend to hover just below them. This is why they will frequently reappear on the top 10/20 chart when there is a slower sales week, even long after the game’s release.

        In other words, Nintendo games retaining their value has nothing to do with Nintendo being mean. It has to do with the fact that people keep buying them, so retailers see no reason to drop their price.

        Also, it’s worth pointing out that when Nintendo games don’t sell, retailers have absolutely no qualms about trying to get rid of them. For example, Metroid: Other M had its price slashed quite rapidly and many bargain bins in Japan were filled with many unsold copies of Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

        • Joanna

          THANK YOU! I seriously don’t get why people rage about this. It’s common sense why these games stay at their suggested retail price. I would give you ten likes if I could for using reason and not jumping on the irrational hate bandwagon.

      • James Beatty

        Nintendo has made mistakes, but they are definitely more trust worthy than most other companies in the business.  
        “Admitting they overpriced the 3DS by such a high amount because of the reaction that they got from it” Analyst suggested that price and they thought people thought that was a fair price. Apple does the same
        “The only first party developer in which their biggest titles never drop in price for a good four to five years, even when they’re not topping the sales charts” 
        That’s because they make good games that stay good for a long time, nothing wrong with that. 
        “If Nintendo could get away with it, they’d threaten companies like they did in the NES days and force developers to develop only for them.  Nintendo is a great first party “developer,” but as a company, I dislike their business tactics.” 
        If any company could do that they would.

        It seems that you have some negative feelings for nintendo for some reason or another, but they aren’t a bad company. 

  • AaqibRawat

    Aw man….

    imagine playing mario getting to the end of world 8 and then you have to pay to fight bowser and complete the last world!

    :O

    the world is a scary place.

    • brian yep

      Nintendo is supposedly just planning to use it so people can keep from getting tired of replaying, and probably not like you’re thinking

  • Yesshua

    This makes a TON of sense.  DLC actually, I think, fits Nintendo’s first party games really well.  Nintendo sequels often have the player doing the exact same things as previous entries but through new levels.  How you interact with the games doesn’t change, it’s more what there is to interact with.

    So imagine if the Super Mario team was able to make a 2D Mario, and then they just kept making new worlds for Mario to run through after release.  You could get a full Mario sequel worth of content in that same game.  I’m imagining Starfox with downloadable Arwing stages, Zelda with challenge dungeons, or F-Zero with extra tracks.  Kirby could have extra worlds the same way as Mario.

    Nintendo has some of the best level design in the business, I hope they use DLC as a way to showcase that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/shawn.dickenson1 Shawn SomethingOtaku Dickenson

    （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ no  way

  • aoihana

    I thought I read that Nintendo was against DLC? Specifically, they were against developers leaving things out, sometimes purposely, so they can make a buck. 

    I guess they were just sugar coating their image.

    Anyway, some are against this, or weary of it, but honestly, I think it’s a great idea. Like some have said, it will open up a world(heh heh) of possibilities. （＾ｖ＾）

    As you’re playing Super Mario Land, and you’re starting to get bored, nothing new to do, and your third time beating it just doesn’t cut it anymore, BAM new DLC! （*＾ワ＾*）

    Very interesting! I hope that Mario Kart gets some new courses and characters, that will be awesome. (◕‿◕✿)

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

      No Nintendo says they don’t believe in things like DLC already on the disc. For them they want to make products that are complete, and finished. Where DLC is not meant to add to a unfinished game.

      • aoihana

        Ah – I see! Thanks for the clarification. Well, at least we can expect Nintendo to provide keep providing awesome games full of rich content. Then they’ll make them even more amazing with DLC.

        It’s very exciting, actually.

        • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

          For example SMG2 could have been DLC, but the Wii has no way to hold all that information. You make one game, and then provide new levels to it for the next few years. People act like Nintendo milk their games with yearly releases. There was only one 2D Mario game on the DS, and the Wii. What if we got new levels for those games after the came out. You would have  reasons to keep playing besides the constant replays. Adding content to the games, and letting Nintendo rest on releasing sequels to them during the same console cycle.

    • http://www.facebook.com/shawn.dickenson1 Shawn SomethingOtaku Dickenson

      （╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ Nintendo knows what they are doing  

      • James Beatty

        Yeah, they have done DLC since the nes days

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/jodecideion?feature=mhum TheWon and Only

    People this is not Sony or Activision DLC plan here. Where they release the next game in the series a year later. Still offering you DLC for the older game your not going to play anymore. Nintendo will make one 2D Mario game for the 3DS like that did for the DS. Then keep giving you new levels for the rest of the console life span. It’s similar to the way MMORPG deliver new content. You already have the one game your going to keep playing until the next console cycle. Then they keep providing you with new levels for the next 3 years.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-de-Groodt/100000446926616 Mike de Groodt

    To be honest i trust nintendo with DLC more than any other company, and knowing nintendo it won’t cost quite as much as let’s say Capcom’s DLC.

    So extra downloadable stages is fine by me, as long as the add a Stage creator then i’ll be set

  • EDGEucator

    Nintendo is not  Capcom ,  Activision , EA  , Infinity Ward , Microsoft or Sony. Nintendo knows how DLC was meant to be implemented & delivered in the past this generation & how it should be in the future.
    Have some faith. Nintendo isn’t in it for the money “alone” like so many other companies are these days (who throw ideas for making great games out the window) , they make quality titles & put care in their products. Nintendo knows where they sit in this industry (even though they’ll never publicly say it ) & i highly doubt they would stump to such levels as producing locked dlc on your games & making dlc  during production of a title , just to make a profit.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1246707513 Shuga Suenaga

      This my friend

      • http://s1.zetaboards.com/Crossed_Swords_Inn/index/ konpon568

        Ditto!

    • GGear0323

      while i can appreciate the enthusiasm, i don’t know how you can say they know how DLC was meant to be implemented when they haven’t really done it before. and making DLC during production of a title is in no way a bad thing. i have no idea how people came to think like that. game development isn’t linear. not every person in a development studio is working on the same thing at all times. you could create new levels for a 2D Mario game for years, but at some point the game has to come out and there is no benefit of waiting to make DLC. you are just putting your employees under an artificial time constraint by pushing back development of DLC for no real reason. 

  • Merulana

    I trust Nintendo with DLC more than any other company out there. They don’t release incomplete games, and they always focus on the quality of the game. I think that Nintendo can make GOOD DLC. I just hope that their sales will get better. It’s not like they release a new game every year that is just a remake of the previous one or anything like that. They bring out a new game every few years. Heck. It takes 3-5 years for a new Zelda. Keeping a game alive until then is a great idea in my opinion.

    • brian yep

      I mostly agree with you, but Mario seems to get a quite a few remakes/rehashes.
      Mario Kart, Mario Olympics, Mario Party, etc

      • Merulana

        You have a good point there. The Mario Olympics/Mario Party games have never caught my interest one bit, but at least Mario Kart is fun no matter how many times it’s remade/rehashed.

        • theworldofnoboundries

          Well u should try Mario Party as i have played that series a lot with my family and many of us love the game. (Well for me, it is just so that i can relieve my stress by pawning my other family members after getting pawned on Gundam vs Gundam Extreme VS lol)

    • epy

      Indeed. They seem to be holding to the ideal of DLC of extending an already complete game through additional content rather than its current twisted use of making a complete game and chopping parts of it to make it DLC. Whether or not they’ll stick to it instead of going for the quick buck remains to be seen. If they do go through with it, I hope it influences other companies to follow its good example.

    • GGear0323

      to be fair, no development studio plans on or wants to ship an incomplete game. in fact, most of them don’t release incomplete games. people seem to have this odd twisted outlook on current DLC that honestly comes out of nowhere. and i mean the content itself, not the stupid decisions that come along with it like online passes or on-disc DLC. if you look at a Map pack for a Modern Warfare game, people will say that since half of the maps are usually rehashes of old maps, they should have been included with the game in the first place. well, rehash or not, it still takes time to create so if they did put it into the game the launch of the game would have been pushed back a few more months. but then then next Map Pack DLC would be timed to come out and people would complain again that it should have been part of the game if it is coming out so quickly. this can go on and on and on. 

      it would be no different than more stages in a 2D Mario game. if they release new stages just 1 month after the game launches, people could say that they probably should have been in the game in the first place. fact is, they could probably create new stages for years, but at some point the game has to launch and you are going to be left with ideas that didn’t make it in in time. 

  • SetzerGabbiani

    They are going to recoup their losses from the botched 3DS launch.  This is simply one way they will do it.

    Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS will be the ultimate test for this type of service.  New characters periodically?  Rebalancing? Yes please.

  • SirRichard

    Honestly, DLC bonus/challenge dungeons for Zelda or another 8 or 9 worlds/galaxies for Mario sounds pretty good. Nintendo’s games honestly seem ready-made for DLC expansion packs, actually. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/merrick.egber Merrick Egber

    All I can say is: Yes, yes, yes! I love the formulas of Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Zelda and these would be the most perfect games to provide daily add-on content towards. An infinite Mario game, that would make me go nuts.

  • Nemesis_Dawn

    Seeing how many people here who normally look at DLC as the end of the world suddenly thinking this is a good idea because Nintendo is doing it makes me wonder how much Iwata spent on Kool Aid for you guys. 

    • Luna Kazemaru

      I lol’d because its true.

    • theworldofnoboundries

      Thats how a brand can change people lol. Like how apple can make millions of their fans to buy their brands again and again.

      As long as Nintendo does this DLC policy with the correct way i am sure many people will see DLC through a different way of views.

  • Lexaus_the_Alchemist

    Congratulations Nintendo, you’ve officially entered the current generation! Now hopefully they can change it for the better…

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Kamek20xxExtra?feature=mhee Michael Stevens

    Oh fantastic, Nintendo (Give this Etna nerd a hug! (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ)! Other than Nippon Ichi/NISA, I think I can absolutely trust you guys to have complete games with not good, but awesome DLC.

    (BTW, I just understood about how people say that many companies make incomplete games with DLC, games with duplicate DLC, or whatnot, and now I agree with them………somewhat…….I think. Call me slow, but hey I’m only 16. Gosh! XC).

  • theworldofnoboundries

    While i don’t really like DLC, as long as Nintendo does what they promised, not using DLC as a mean to complete and unfinished game, i will be more than happy to support them.

    If DLC is used properly, i believe it will bring profit and happyness to both producer and consumer as while the producers will earn money, consumer will be happy that they are able to continue playing the game they loved.

  • poisui

    It doesn’t bother me that Nintendo is doing DLC. The only times when DLC bothers me is when it is abused and implemented in “incomplete” games.

  • Jirin

    Just so long as we get the complete game and the extra stages are treated like mini-sequels.  And, so long as they’re *new levels* and not just old levels with a shadow chasing you or something.

    Or, a Zelda Link To The Past port with a downloadable ‘second quest’? Ten year old me will open up a rift in time and crawl through just to play it.

    I, for instance, would love it if they developed a “Challenge package” on the level of Lost Levels. 

    At least they’re not selling in-game bonuses and equipment like Namco.

  • http://s1.zetaboards.com/Crossed_Swords_Inn/index/ konpon568

    Nintendo has my complete trust over DLC!

  • Hinataharem

    Why are so many people supporting Nintendo when it comes to DLC, and bash other companies?

  • Covnam

    I don’t want to see a Mario game with dlc. They usually come with plenty of content, and I’d hate to see Nintendo follow the route of other companies and start cutting things to be held back for DLC. Saying that, if any company did release a game, claim that it is exactly the same as it would be if DLC wasn’t an option, I’d probably have to believe Nintendo.

  • MrSirFeatherFang

    I know about the e-Reader extra levels with the Mario Advance games, but I do not own a e-Reader or any of the Mario Advance games. I’ve seen a few videos and they looked really interesting and intense. I hope the Mario dlc is like that. Also I always wanted Mario Party games to have more minigames (and a fast forward option to make the games go more quickly). Maybe actual costumes in the next Smash Bros.

  • Mr_SP

    I’m surprised the 3DS is going to go below cost so quickly. Is that why they dropped the price of the 3DS so quickly? That they never sold it at cost in the first place?

  • wahyudil

    for Mario Kart, wii party, mario party, wii fit, rythm heaven this DLC will become good news … I am always sad when I have played all games in Mario Party or Wii Party …

  • neetyneety

    More stages, kart parts, and remove Maka Wuhu for Mario Kart 7… make it happen Nintendo and you can have all my money! (what little of it is left after buying all the upcoming games that is)

  • http://talesattbokmph.wordpress.com/ Setsuryuu (TBOkmph)

    That sounds promissing. They’ll finally make DLC too? Now let us see if they can make it right. And by make it right I mean release a new Mario Party and keep DLCs of it for as years as it takes until they can actually have an idea beyond stages/chars/etc that actually justifies making a new entry in the series. lol

    Ok, maybe that was mean. But hey, they speak of the Holy Grail of DLC, the kind everyone always dreamed of, the “extras to a finished game” instead of the “unfinished game you need to pay more to have it all”. Will greed took them over? Will a time of darkness forces them to go to the dark side of DLC? The future harbors the answers of this ultimate quest.

  • PrinceHeir

    Super Mario World with LPB content please :D

  • Joanna

    Not really a big fan of DLC, but I don’t hate it. Just depends on what is offered and price so cautiously optimistic for now.

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