Miyamoto says it’s ‘hard to make adventure games in current climate’

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has highlighted the challenges involved in creating modern adventure games, pointing to the high costs associated with development and waning appeal among young players.

During Nintendo’s 79th annual general meeting of shareholders last week, the company was asked whether it was viable to make adventure games in the current business climate.

The question was posed by a shareholder who fondly recalled playing Famicom Detective Club, which was released over 30 years ago, according to a Siliconera transcription of the exchange.

Nintendo creative Miyamoto responded: “Regarding adventure games, I have also helped develop many of them beginning with Shin Onigashima, but it’s very hard to make one in the current environment. Nowadays, games are localised in over 10 languages, and adventure games’ localisation costs are massive in terms of voices and text.

“Furthermore, younger gamers trend towards being uninterested in this genre,” he said. “However, designing adventure game mechanics is fun, and are used well in Capcom’s Ace Attorney and Level-5’s Professor Layton series, so while we can still have hope for the genre, please understand that actively making one is hard in the current mainstream.”

During the AGM, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa also revealed the company is still developing “quality of life” products, five years after late president Satoru Iwata announced his intention to take the company into the health improvement business.

Additionally, Furukawa said the firm is considering extending its Nintendo Switch Online library beyond the currently offered NES games to other legacy platforms.