Will Nintendo's Mario Franchise Ever Die?

[xBASSxMONSTAx]

Nintendo's best mascot which is Mario who is considered one of the best video game characters of all time and rightly so. He has been with us now for over 25 years and he's still going strong.

Just last week New Super Mario Bros. 2 was announced for the 3DS for August, its been less than a year since Super Mario 3D Land was out.

This got me thinking, will the Mario franchise ever die out or will it be around forever?

[CloudStrife7x]

as long as people want Mario it will never end :029:

[LordSoth67]

He will always be around, as long as they keep making games, and even if a day comes that Nintendo quit making games we would all still go back and play the old ones.

[Emerald Lance]

The video game market will suffer another crash in the near future. Here's my theory about that.

Currently, there are three first-party developers, and so far it seems the next console generation will see only the same three: Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Only one of those is an actual video game developer (Nintendo) while the other two are simply relatively small divisions of much larger companies.

Sidestep. The used game market is killing the video game industry. Before, when it was Ebay and light piracy, this wasn't an issue. But now there's Gamestop, and anybody that can pirate games is doing so (mostly because the internet is much further reaching than it was ten years ago as well as the fact that almost any computer can emulate at least the older consoles and most handhelds now). Suffice it to say, the actual developers are losing money by the bucket-full. If the rumors about the next Xbox not playing used games is true, then the issue might be slightly subverted, but people will find ways around it to be sure.

Going back to the first subject: only one of the three companies actually has their fortunes invested entirely in video games, and that would be Nintendo. The moment game making becomes (as Bob Chipman put it) "prohibitively unprofitable", Microsoft and Sony will both drop their game divisions (since they will no longer make money selling games). Nintendo will be the only company left, making them a monopoly.

While America has laws against monopolies, the rest of the world does not. Because Nintendo will no longer have any competition (unless Sega re-enters the fray, which they won't) they will be free to make steep regulations against third-parties, basically saying "make your game our way or it won't get released" ("also give us such-and-such percentage of income or it won't get released"). Third-parties will die out because they can no longer make games at the rate they need to in order to stay afloat, while Nintendo will continue to thrive on their first-party games (especially Mario). And all the while, nobody will have the guts to rise up against Nintendo and make their own console, and rightly so; nobody would buy it, seeing as Nintendo is -THE- brand name in video games at this point (certainly not enough people will buy it to keep it going financially). Nintendo will be the supply AND the demand.

But, without any third party games on their side, even Nintendo will fall to the sheer amount of money needed to survive in the video game economy. Not to mention, being a monopoly, they'll see fit to raise their prices on everything, effectively making nobody buy games in the first place ("pay our high prices or don't play video games"). And of course, they'll stop worrying about game quality, seeing as there's no competition to butt heads with, and gamers will just stop caring. It'll be the first crash all over again, except this time it'll be one company instead of several. When Nintendo falls, there will be nobody left to pick up the pieces.

When the crash finally does end, different developers will come up and start making consoles (maybe even Sega). Nintendo might try again, but everybody will remember Nintendo as the over-priced monopoly that crashed the market, and nobody will buy from them anymore. Nintendo will go the route of Sega, and stop developing consoles. They may even shut down completely. I see all of this happening in the next 5-10 years.

Tl;dr version, Mario will be around for another decade or so, give or take five years. That is, of course, unless I'm wrong about the whole thing (I very well could be) and the video game market turns out to be a-ok.

[xSaiintx]

Quick answer...NO!

Look at it this way, as a kid did you play the crap out of the Mario games? When you heard that a new game was coming out did you put it on your wish list? I like many others played and enjoyed the Mario games but as I got
older I grew away from those games and became a more hardcore gamer. The Mario games are still being developed because we still have kids that will enjoy them and they will maybe move on as I did. To me Nintendo as a company are more geared towards children and long as we have children we will most likely have Mario.

[Emerald Lance]

What is a "hardcore" gamer, though? I can see two definitions: (1) a gamer that prefers to play games that are centered around mature themes, and (2) a gamer that enjoys games that have refined and/or deep play mechanics. It basically comes down to people who prefer Mortal Kombat because it's hardcore (brutal and bloody) versus people who enjoy Street Fighter because it's hardcore (refined and precise). Neither definition shows a "better" gamer than the other, but rather "different" gamers.

I find myself falling under the second definition. I adore the Mario games because they are the hallmark of perfect and tight control; while many kids do like Mario for his bright colors and fun themes, most golden age gamers (ie adult gamers) that still play Mario do so for the same reason as me. Ultimately, it falls down to taste: nothing is for everybody; some people just don't like it. And that's cool.

I'm gonna take this chance to reiterate on my last post. I still think the game market is gonna crash hard, that the used game market will be the cause, and that Nintendo will only serve to drive the point home. I definitely think Nintendo will fall with the rest of them, but they will fall last. Will Mario last forever? Probably not. But because of its core gameplay model and precise controls, the golden age gamers (and many early 90's gamers like myself) will do a great job making sure Mario will last the longest.

And finally, I hope you don't take what I said about "hardcore" as an attack, xSaiintx. I promise I didn't mean it that way.

[cybersam]

@Emerald Lance
well personally... i very much doubt such crash will come as you imagine it...
even if the game market becomes less lucrative for sony and microsoft to produce anything for it anymore... nintendo will stay strong and keep going.... and later on one or two other companies will join again...
so in the end mario will never die... unless nintendo gives up...
which i very much doubt... because of their company philosophy... and so the only time when that will be is when playing games becomes obsolete... which again won't happen... at least not in the near future ^_^
and here again.. unless our whole system (of the whole earth) crashes in which case we won't have energy or any functioning electronic devices..

so in the end... unless we get a "system" crash... mario will still be with us... and probably with our grand-grandchildren as well... ^_^

and @Wewabeste bye bye...

[kingqueen]

Obviously Mario games are one of nintendos best selling. It will never die.
But on the other hand the world is going to to end so everything and everyone is going to die.

[thegutta]

Mario For Life :D