Nintendo has responded to being voted the favorite developer of readers of Japanese magazine Famitsu, speaking of its past and future.
Famitsu celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, and to mark the milestone, the magazine published the results of a massive survey (thanks, Nintendo Everything) of readers which saw over 5,000 people vote on a ton of topics about games.
These included people's first ever game, which unsurprisingly saw Super Mario Bros. in first, with Mario also being people's favorite character (just above Cloud and Tifa from Final Fantasy 7). Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won out in the "game to play again if you lost your memory" and "favorite game to recommend to others" categories. Kirby and Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai was dubbed "favorite creator" while Nintendo itself was voted "favorite developer."
After being voted the top developer, Nintendo shared a message to its fans (via Nintendo Everything, with translation provided by SatsumaFS and Simon Griffin). "Thank you for choosing Nintendo as the No. 1 'Game Developer I Like,'" the message reads, adding: "We are also extremely happy that Mario and The Legend of Zelda have been received favorably."
Nintendo adds, "Ever since the Famicom (NES) was released in 1983, we have created chances for many to give video games a try, and we are grateful to Famitsu for keeping customers excited and supporting us across those 40 years.
"During these 40 years, technology related to game development has evolved, and the environment has changed as well, but we have continued to keep 'originality' as our central theme going through trial and error and learning many things while creating entertainment with the goal of putting smiles on customers' faces." The company says: "If this 40-year-long path has become a part of everyone's memories, there is nothing that would make us happier."
Looking forward, Nintendo says it will "continue to challenge various things, aiming for unique entertainment that only we could produce, and work hard towards that goal. We shall continue to be in your care from now on." And, given the absolute scenes we're seeing at Microsoft and Sony right now, hopefully Nintendo continues to focus on what makes games good. Even if there are some missteps here and there, we're thankfully not seeing layoffs out of Nintendo every other week.
