As many will tell you, it’s not just about having money, it’s about how you use it. In today’s gaming industry, that’s more important than ever, and you can usually tell what developers/publishers use it well…and which don’t. Nintendo is absolutely one who uses it well more times than not, as the success of the Switch over the last eight years will tell you. However, we’re now on the precipice of the Switch 2 era, and a slide from the latest financial briefing raises a certain question about what The Big N is spending its money on.
As you can see below, the R&D expenses for Nintendo have continually gone up since 2017, and have taken even bigger jumps in the last few years. The gap from 2023 to 2024 can easily be attributed to the Switch 2 and its development, but why is it projected to be even higher this year?
It's been a well-known fact for many years that #Nintendo pours significant resources into R&D, but they're projected to hit a new record for 2025.We could be getting some seriously ambitious entries in their marquee franchises like Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, etc. #Switch2
— Jeff Mondo (@jeff-mondo.bsky.social) 2025-05-10T17:35:00.562Z
The answer might have to do with software. In a Q&A during the financial briefing, Shuntaro Furukawa noted that the “innovation of the Switch 2” lies in its ability to allow developers to push things even further than before on their systems. R&D doesn’t just have to be about hardware building, but doing various software tests to see how much you can push things on new hardware.
Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, the first two major exclusive games on the Switch, both show examples of innovation within their franchises. So, by that token, could that expansive R&D budget be getting put to use on other series from The Big N to see how far things can be pushed? We might find out sooner than you think…
