Nintendo director says uniqueness matters more amid AI and internet growth

Yusuke Beppu, a Nintendo director and senior executive officer, said during Nintendo’s financial results Q&A on Nov. 7, 2026 that it is crucial for the company to offer unique entertainment experiences that lead customers to choose it.

He said the internet and AI have made the amount of digital content vastly greater than in the past, and because so much entertainment is available for free, Nintendo now works in an environment fundamentally different from the past. He said the environment changed dramatically because online platforms and AI tools have spread, and that surging free-to-access content forces Nintendo to justify premium pricing with unreplicable experiences. “it is crucial that we offer the kind of unique entertainment experiences that only Nintendo can provide,” Beppu said.

Citing Nintendo’s 40 years of game-development know-how, Beppu said the company’s top priority is creating unique new things, with competitiveness and value coming from development. He said originality has long been central to Nintendo’s philosophy, and that a four-decade legacy gives Nintendo deep development expertise, though the firm must still manage tension between artistic vision and fiscal responsibility.

Balancing creativity with business remains difficult and demanding, Beppu said, and a successful business requires satisfying customers. He said Nintendo believes thorough internal discussions are necessary to ensure everything it creates truly satisfies customers, and that drawing on internal and external resources is vital to give customers a diverse range of choices.

Those statements point to Nintendo’s belief that differentiation, not output volume, will determine future success. Nintendo said earlier in the week that it keeps pursuing new forms of play and is not abandoning them, and the company reported that it keeps exploring novel ways to engage players, a sign that fresh play concepts remain a priority.

Nintendo stressed the need to deliver distinctive entertainment as the digital landscape fills with internet-driven and AI-generated content, and the briefing conveyed that Nintendo intends to lean into its creative DNA while adjusting to digital abundance. The Q&A segment of the financial results call included a question about how the company balances creative ambition with commercial realities given lengthy modern development cycles.

Nintendo works to deliver unique and original entertainment to people everywhere, mainly through dedicated video game platforms that pair hardware with software. The company currently markets Nintendo Switch 2 globally as a dedicated video game platform providing an experience captured by the phrase All Together, Anytime, Anywhere.

Through unique games including Super Mario titles, Nintendo conveys its distinct entertainment value. In recent years, Nintendo extended its unique entertainment beyond video games into areas including movies, apps, merchandise and real-world experiences, creating new consumer connections in many different ways.

Through the Nintendo Account program, Nintendo will further develop connections to directly deliver its unique entertainment and create lasting relationships spanning generations. Nintendo’s business activities are guided by two principles: growing the Nintendo IP fanbase and fostering long-term relationships with consumers.

Nintendo says it stays focused on improving every product and service to keep customers satisfied. The company hopes people will grow fond of its IP across generations and view it as a beloved part of daily life, and hopes to be a name people naturally look to. Nintendo will build trust and give people more reasons to choose it for unique, family-friendly entertainment, and will keep upholding creativity, believing the true worth of entertainment lies in being unique, while staying agile and responsive to change.

Nintendo’s caution around AI generation tools was reported on Oct. 9, 2024. Shigeru Miyamoto had publicly said Nintendo is reluctant to use AI tools because the company wants to preserve what makes it special, and Shuntaro Furukawa echoed him, raising concerns over intellectual property rights and the irreplaceable value of human creativity in game development.

The report said Nintendo’s decision to sidestep the AI trend seeks to maintain creative integrity and deliver unique experiences technology cannot achieve alone. AI generation tools changed how games are made, including character design, animation, level generation, and narrative storytelling, and AI can manage repetitive tasks and build complex content, attracting developers looking for efficiency and innovation.

Procedural generation algorithms help developers build large game worlds using less manual work, which cuts development time and costs, according to the report. Critics say relying too much on AI could make game content more similar because AI-generated elements may lack the unique touch human creators bring, and critics also fear job losses among artists, designers, and writers as AI takes over human tasks.

The report said major players including Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, and Rockstar Games have added AI to development pipelines to improve efficiency, create content, and study player data. Nintendo remains open to exploring technological tools that improve game development while protecting creative integrity, and continues to invest in research and development focused on better gameplay, storytelling, and player engagement. Possible innovations include advanced physics engines, enhanced VR experiences, and improved interactive storytelling that relies on human creativity instead of automated processes.