Yesterday's Donkey Kong Bananza Direct proved without a shadow of a doubt that the upcoming Switch 2-exclusive isn't one to miss, but we still don't know exactly what development team is working on it within Nintendo. Although one option is looking increasingly more likely, two former Nintendo marketing leads speculate that this could be bad news for 3D Mario fans, as the next game could be "many years away" as a result.
Nintendo has remained tight-lipped about exactly who is making Donkey Kong Bananza, but right from its reveal, many have speculated that it might be Production Group No. 8 – better known as EPD Tokyo – a team that's produced nothing but bangers from Super Mario Odyssey to Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World. The new DK game does look very visually reminiscent of Odyssey – hell, the costume shop shown during yesterday's Direct practically screamed it.
Speaking about the situation prior to the Direct stream, Kit Ellis, Nintendo of America's former director of social media marketing and original content, and Krysta Yang, the company's former senior manager of creator relations and original content, also suspect that EPD Tokyo is indeed the team responsible. However, unless they've got "some new arrangement where somebody else is involved in one way or another," then the "implication is we might just be waiting for a good long time before we get the next 3D Mario game," Ellis suggests.
"That team is incredible, nobody's disputing the quality, [but] they are not fast, they are not prolific, they are not pumping out games," he continues.
Noting that it's unlikely that Nintendo would want to do anything to "jeopardize" its next 3D Mario game, Yang speculates: "From my perspective, if it is confirmed that EPD Tokyo is working on Bananza, then that does mean, unfortunately, that 3D Mario is probably coming very late." Ellis chimes in: "Just reset the clock on 3D Mario."
Yang then suggests that it could then be "four, five, six years" until the next 3D Mario game, with Ellis adding: "We're still going to get it, but it's going to be more of a late-generation [game], at soonest a mid-generation."
This puts Nintendo in an interesting position, Ellis says, pointing out that we also don't know when we'll be getting the next mainline Zelda game after Tears of the Kingdom. "The two big things that carried the year one of the Switch 1, and it's like we're going to be many, many years into the Switch 2 before we start to see those or even hear about those, honestly. It's a different path and it does feel riskier than those games that were just like, 'oh, this is a sure thing.'"
Furthermore, Yang speculates that the potential impact Donkey Kong Bananza's development could have, by theoretically making "our precious, beloved 3D Mario game" be "many, many, many, many years away," could be a reason why Nintendo hasn't actually shared who's working on it yet. "I think that they are scared that that sort of underlining thing will kind of put a little damper on this game. And they need this game to perform for them, they're still in this very critical launch period."
Of course, all this is speculation for now, as we don't know for sure who's making the game at all. With Donkey Kong Bananza's launch just a month away, however, we don't have long to wait until we find out.
For now, be sure to check out our picks for the best Switch 2 games.
