The boss of Nintendo of America has described 2023 as a “unique” year for the company, but insisted it’s also a “banner year” for Nintendo.
Speaking to IGN at the Nintendo Live event in Seattle, Bowser pointed to various initiatives outside of video games that have proven hugely successful for Nintendo this year. These include the opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Hollywood as well as the astonishing success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
“And if I think about folding [Nintendo Live] into the bigger strategy, this year has really been a very unique, and I dare say banner year for Nintendo in a lot of ways,” Bowser said.
“It started with the opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Hollywood, which follows the opening of the park two years ago in Osaka.
“We launched The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which very quickly became the second-largest box office grossing animated film of all time at $1.3 billion. We launched The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which, 18 million units later after a very brief period of time, it’s one of our fastest launch titles ever, and then the event today.
“So it’s really this drumbeat of activities, entertainment-based activities where we’re trying to find ways to continue to introduce more and more people, not just players, but people to Nintendo IP… So that’s what we’re excited about.”
Last month, Nintendo said it saw a boost from The Super Mario Bros. Movie via a ‘halo’ effect that drove users to the Japanese gaming giant’s video games. Nintendo said games featuring Mario, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, enjoyed a boost in sales.
And there’s plenty more to come from 2023 for Nintendo fans. Switch exclusive 2D platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder (check out our preview here), WarioWare: Move It!, the Super Mario RPG remake, and Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet DLC are all due out by the end of this year.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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