The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo veteran of 38 years who most recently worked on the Ocarina of Time remake, says keeping staff around long-term is beneficial to the entirety of a studio – and the quality of its franchises, too.
Speaking in a new interview with GameSpot, Aonuma explains why Nintendo – and other developers overseas – aren't as likely to face waves of layoffs as Western teams might be. Heck, this year alone, we've seen many… Microsoft's plans to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox immediately spring to mind.
According to the Zelda producer, though, there are benefits to retaining your staff over the years, as Nintendo does.
"I think you see a real benefit to having some very long-term-tenured staff members around who have shared the same experiences over time because every time you get to the next step, it's easier to discuss how to proceed, or if you're going to do something new," he says.
With newcomers joining the studio, you want folks who know how to introduce them to long-standing processes, series, and the like that they might be less familiar with.
"When you have new staff coming in, of course you want to make sure that you're bringing everyone up with a lot of discussion, explaining how to do things, why you're doing things certain ways, as well as the language that you're using, but that takes some more time as well."
This all calls for "a bit of balance," in the producer's words: "You don't want your new staff doing things by rote or without understanding the reasons; you have to invest there."
Plus, keeping old devs in the picture doesn't mean that there's never change – the Zelda series is a good example.
"You do see the Zelda team change over time, but there is a continuity of core staff, certainly at least from one project to the next, so that we have that base that we can build from and bring up new staff within it. And this is something that I think Nintendo has done for a very long time, even since Miyamoto originally worked on projects like this."
In other words, there's a healthy blend of both longtime devs and fresh faces – "and it contributes to some of the sense of continuity that you do feel in games in the Zelda franchise, for example." This checks out.
Recently, Aonuma also admitted that not all of the Ocarina of Time remake devs have played the N64 original, saying "it's thanks to these young people" it was made the way that it was. But, many have, too.
That's where that "balance" comes into play, I suppose, likely contributing to the new sidequests and dungeon tweaks, or the addition of Breath of the Wild's option to turn off the UI (plus, you know, the jump button), while maintaining what made the OG so great.
Interested in one of this year's biggest new games yourself? Have a read through our Ocarina of Time remake preview to see why we love Aonuma and Nintendo's latest hit so far.
