A.Romero
Member
Not to derail this thread but I purchased the physical copy of Mario Wonder last week. Game was complete without fault. No bugs. No issues whatsoever. Why is that such an achievement in gaming today? Not even Insomniac could achieve that easy feat.
Not to excuse Konami (what they are doing is BS and shouldn't be compared to Insomniac IMO) but Nintendo's approach is totally different.
You can see here: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/202...uper-Mario-Bros-Wonder-Chapter-1-2460393.html
So during development of Super Mario Maker 2, you were already confident that you could create something completely fresh.
Tezuka:
Well, yes.
Hayashida:
No, no, I wasn't! (Laughs) Players have created so many different courses in Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2 that I was worried about whether we could do anything new that would go beyond that. ...But apparently, Tezuka-san thought it would be fine. (Laughs)
Tezuka:
I'm an optimist. (Laughs)
Mouri:
Well, I wasn't optimistic, but I was more focused on creating something completely different from the New Super Mario Bros. series than how it would compare to Super Mario Maker.
Hayashida:
Yes, I remember Mouri-san saying during the early stages of development that we shouldn't use the same game engine as in the New Super Mario Bros. series but rather create a new game engine that would serve as a foundation for future 2D Mario games. Thankfully, Tezuka-san also told us to prioritise content over schedule.
Tezuka:
We wanted to create a game with much more to offer than ever before, so this time, we didn't set a fixed time period for development, which is usually decided before we kick off. To create something truly enjoyable, we decided to take our time and dedicate ample budget for development without having to worry about the production schedule. So at first, we only had a small group working on the development.
Not that Konami couldn't take the same approach but they obviously don't care as much as Nintendo. Konami would need to be out of their minds to think MGS can reach Mario's numbers so obviously that impacts how much money makes sense to invest.
Regarding Insomniac the size of the game is probably much much bigger than Mario Wonder and complexity does impact the project in every aspect that you could imagine, making it harder to put out a flawless product that will have a ROI aligned to the company's expectations. After a quick search I found that New Mario Bros Wii sold 30 million copies and Spider man sold 33 million copies by 2022 (so probably a bit more now) but they probably had a very different budget so Mario's ROI was probably much much higher.
Again, not to excuse anyone for shitty development (as consumers is not our problem) but Nintendo exists on another level.