The Super Mario Bros. Movie made over $1.3 billion at the global box office, more than any individual Mario game has ever generated in revenue. That number wasn't lost on Shigeru Miyamoto. And according to a new interview with Polygon, the scale of that success wasn't just a happy accident. It was a signal Nintendo had been waiting for.
Miyamoto's honest take on console limits
Miyamoto put it plainly: there are only so many people Nintendo can reach through its own hardware. "As we approach Mario and developing Mario games, I start to feel like there's only so many people that we can reach through Nintendo's systems and consoles," he told Polygon. "And so now with things like digital streaming and the expanse and the reach of what the technology allows now, I feel like that's a great way to get Mario involved too."
That's a remarkably candid admission from one of gaming's most iconic figures. The man who created Mario is essentially acknowledging that games alone aren't enough to grow the franchise anymore.
Here's the thing: he's not wrong. The console market has plateaued. The Switch moved over 146 million units, one of the best-selling consoles ever, but the hardware ceiling is real. New console generations aren't outselling previous ones. Market share can shift between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, but the total addressable audience isn't expanding the way it once did.
From game worlds to media worlds
Nintendo's response has been to reframe what kind of company it is. Miyamoto told Polygon that the goal is no longer just to make people wonder what game Nintendo will release next. "I would love for them to think about, 'What kind of world Nintendo will expand on now,'" he said.
That shift is already underway. Nintendo has announced a live-action Zelda film. The company has been posting animated shorts for Mario and Pikmin online. And of course, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was officially announced in September 2025, with Illumination returning as the animation studio. The film focuses on the Galaxy setting, expanding the Mario universe into territory that games have touched but movies haven't fully explored yet.
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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was confirmed during the September 2025 Nintendo Direct. Illumination, the studio behind the first film, is producing the sequel.
What most players miss in this conversation is how deliberate the timing is. Nintendo isn't just chasing movie money. The transmedia push is a hedge against hardware dependency. If the next Switch 2 generation sells similarly to the original Switch rather than surpassing it, Nintendo needs revenue streams and audience touchpoints that don't rely on someone buying a $450 console first.
What this means for the Mario franchise going forward
For now, Miyamoto has ruled out a Smash Bros.-style cinematic universe that pulls every Nintendo character together. The focus stays on individual worlds and characters rather than a shared continuity. That's probably the right call. The MCU model works when the IP has decades of interconnected storytelling behind it. Nintendo's characters are iconic but their narratives are deliberately minimal by design.
The more interesting question is what comes next. Will the Switch 2 introduce a brand new Nintendo IP, the way Splatoon and Arms arrived on Wii U and Switch? Or will Nintendo's next original franchise appear first on a streaming platform rather than a cartridge?
Miyamoto framed Mario as a character who has always evolved alongside digital media, from arcade cabinets to home consoles to mobile to now film and streaming. That framing gives Nintendo a lot of flexibility about where Mario and other characters show up next. You can check the Mario full overview of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie for everything confirmed about the upcoming film so far.
The console era isn't ending. But Nintendo is clearly building for a future where a kid's first encounter with Mario might be in a movie theater or on a streaming app, not holding a controller. Make sure to check out more:
