Nintendo Exclusives Will Stay on Its Consoles, Doug Bowser Says
Former Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser says Mario and Zelda stay on Nintendo hardware because its games cost far less to make than rivals' titles.
Hakkı ALKANPublished 3 min read
Nintendo exclusives such as Mario and Zelda are likely to stay on Nintendo hardware, according to former Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser. Speaking on the opening legends panel at GamesBeat Next 2026 in San Francisco, Bowser said Nintendo does not "feel the need, at this point in time, to take it beyond the platform," citing much lower development costs than its rivals.
Bowser retired from Nintendo of America in January 2026, so his comments are a read on the company's thinking rather than an official announcement. He shared the stage with former PlayStation studios chief Shawn Layden and former Sega, Xbox and EA executive Peter Moore, in a session moderated by Dean Takahashi and published as a full GamesBeat transcript on November 6.
Why Do Nintendo Exclusives Stay on Nintendo Hardware?
Bowser said exclusivity is not a yes or no question for every company. In his view, it depends on what a game costs to build, whether it can turn a profit and whether it helps sell consoles.
For Nintendo, he said, the answer has always been different. "With the Switch, and even before, our software dev teams were sitting with the hardware dev teams," Bowser said. That lets first party games (titles made by the platform holder itself) be tuned for one device "at the lowest costs."
He pointed to a "huge gap" between Nintendo's budgets and the costs discussed at the event. Nintendo wants "a Nintendo universe where you can come in and play the content and be a part of that," he added. Bowser then stopped there, saying he did not want to speak for the development teams.
How Do Rivals See Exclusives Now?
The other panelists were split. Moore joked that "Nintendo has no cross-platform games, so that's easy," and argued that exclusives are fading since Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard. Layden, whose comments on the Bloodborne 2 rights tangle made headlines this weekend, said exclusives still matter for a platform.
Bowser also recalled talks with Phil Spencer. Microsoft felt it had to put Call of Duty on PlayStation and Switch to recoup the cost of the deal, and it did. Meanwhile, Sony has moved many of its own games to PC.
What Does This Mean for Players?
In short, anyone who wants the next Mario or Zelda game should still plan on owning Nintendo hardware. Mobile titles such as Super Mario Run remain the main exception. Moreover, the stance matches decades of company behavior, including projects like the Ocarina of Time remake.
However, the model depends on selling consoles. Switch 2 sales dropped in the first half of Nintendo's fiscal year amid price hikes and memory costs. Bowser, for his part, expects big launches to lift the whole market, including the GTA 6 release on November 19, which will not come to Switch 2.
Our take: cheap, hardware tuned development is the reason Nintendo can skip the multiplatform route that Xbox and PlayStation now use. As long as that cost gap holds, Mario and Zelda are unlikely to leave home.