Did you know that we wouldn’t be getting a bunch of Nintendo theme parks, Nintendo-branded mobile games, and even an upcoming Mario movie from Illumination were it not for one of Nintendo’s prized possessions?

According to Nintendo’s legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, he talks about why his stance towards the Mario movie changed since the 1993 American travesty. Basically, he got the feels back when he worked on the Virtual Console back in the Wii days. He figured that combining 30 years of gaming history with video assets, they can be utilized together for longer periods of time and influence.

Full translated quote below (via Siliconera):

“We do not do something like separating our IP development strategy depending on the touchpoint. For example, regarding IP development into movies, I was originally against Nintendo expanding into video-making, but am currently involved personally in using our company’s IP in film production; and the background behind this change is because Nintendo has re-released many games via Virtual Console.

Our assets are our software, and even 30 years on, they are still active. However, unfortunately, when the original hardware compatible with the software is gone, we have no choice but to port it onto new hardware.

After experiencing this process of bringing older software onto new hardware many times, I began to consider that our content business would be able to develop even further if we were able to combine our long-beloved software with that of video assets, and utilize them together for extended periods.

Basically, it’s not that ‘I want to make a Mario movie’, but that I began to consider that ‘we should bring more Nintendo content into the field of video-making’. With films, the amount of people who would contact our IP would widen, and increase the amount of people engaging with our IP. Then, we’d be able to further increase the spread of our media via video.”