Nintendo’s bold new era is full of safe bets

Nintendo is entering a new era. While most everyone associates the company with video games, for the last few years the brand behind Mario has been steadily expanding itself into something much larger. "I think people view Nintendo as a gaming company, but we have always thought of ourselves as an entertainment company," Nintendo's senior […]

May 26, 2025 - 15:30

Nintendo’s bold new era is full of safe bets

Nintendo is entering a new era. While most everyone associates the company with video games, for the last few years the brand behind Mario has been steadily expanding itself into something much larger.

"I think people view Nintendo as a gaming company, but we have always thought of ourselves as an entertainment company," Nintendo's senior managing executive officer, Shinya Takahashi, told me in 2023. Design legend Shigeru Miyamoto echoed the same idea at the opening of Nintendo's first museum last year. "What I wanted to express with this museum is that we are first and foremost an entertainment company," he said.

To that end, Nintendo has entered into new areas like theme parks and Hollywood films. At the same time, it's now attempting to maintain its foothold in games with the launch of the Switch 2, a follow-up to its most successful home console to date. Each of these moves is a bold bet designed to broaden Nintendo's scope - but each one does that in the safest possible way.

As Nintendo gets more ambitious, it's also getting less risky.

The Switch 2 is the most obvious example. It's right there in the name. Instead of switching things up with a left field idea like the Wi …

Read the full story at The Verge.