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Yes—as one part of a varied release schedule, not as a substitute for new games. Former Nintendo marketing leads Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang say Nintendo historically kept some completed remakes and ports ready to release when its calendar had a gap. That recollection makes a case for remakes as schedule buffers, but it does not establish that Nintendo still works that way or that remakes alone can prevent release lulls. Nor does the available evidence verify a measurable “PS5-like” drought to compare against.
What former Nintendo marketing leads say about filling release gaps
On episode 217 of the Kit & Krysta Podcast, guest Lucy James asked whether Nintendo held completed games until the timing was right. Yang, a former Nintendo of America senior manager for creator relations and original content, replied that this had happened in the past: some games were “sock[ed] away in the Nintendo vault.” She described remakes and ports as projects that could be completed quickly, held, and released when there was a gap in the calendar. GamesRadar+ reported the discussion.
Yang framed the practice as one way Nintendo had avoided lulls during the Switch life cycle—not as a guarantee that every gap could be filled or that every release would be a remake. Crucially, she said she left Nintendo in 2022 and did not know how the company operated afterward. Her recollection is evidence about past practice, not confirmation of Nintendo’s current planning.
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A remake can offer a publisher a release option between larger projects while making an older game accessible to people who missed its original launch. That can help a schedule feel less empty, especially when the original game needs changes to work for current players. But the schedule benefit is only one consideration: the game still has to be worth making and have room to reach an audience.
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- Calendar flexibility: A completed project can be timed to a gap, as Yang described. The sources do not quantify how often this happened or how quickly particular remakes were made.
- Access to older games: A new release can introduce an earlier game to younger players or others who never had the original hardware or opportunity to play it.
- Creative capacity: Development time and attention devoted to remakes are not automatically available for original projects. The sources do not establish a fixed trade-off, but they do make the balance a real editorial concern.
- Audience and timing: A familiar name may appeal to longtime fans, but it does not guarantee attention from new players or protect a launch from competition.
Why Nintendo should not rely on nostalgia alone
Ellis and Yang have also cautioned against treating nostalgia as a strategy in itself. In a separate discussion reported by GamesRadar+, they argued that leaning too heavily on familiar properties could weaken Nintendo’s creative identity and make it harder to attract new fans. Their criticism is about balance, not a claim that remakes are inherently bad.
Nintendo’s public comments point in a similar direction, though they are historical rather than a statement of current policy. In 2019, president Shuntaro Furukawa said Nintendo had “no defined policy to continuously release more remakes in future.” He emphasized developer passion and the ability to create new experiences and fun over nostalgia alone, citing The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening as a game where old and new elements both resonated. GameSpot reported Furukawa’s remarks.
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Remakes can introduce older games to younger players
There is also a case for remakes that goes beyond filling a calendar. In a 2026 Famitsu interview reported by Nintendo Wire, Shigeru Miyamoto said younger players may not have had the opportunity to play games from a decade earlier, and that making older games more playable and releasing them again can meet that demand. He also said making original games known to players can lead to future development.
That is Miyamoto’s rationale for revisiting older titles; it does not mean every remake will produce a sequel or that Nintendo has committed to a continuous remake pipeline. It does, however, show how an older game can serve as both an accessible release in its own right and a way to bring a franchise to new players.
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Recent examples show the appeal—and the limits of timing
A July 2026 TechRadar report describes a Star Fox 64 remake as released on Switch 2 and says a Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was planned for 2026. The cited report gives no precise launch date for Ocarina of Time or confirmation of a physical retail edition. The original debuted on Nintendo 64 in 1998, and a 3DS remaster followed in 2011. Those examples illustrate the interest in revisiting familiar games, but they do not establish a release cadence or show how much any one remake can smooth Nintendo’s calendar.
Timing matters even when a game has a familiar name. Yang said she would choose Grand Theft Auto if it launched on the same day as a faithful Ocarina of Time remake, according to GamesRadar+. That is her personal view, not a measure of what all players would choose. It nonetheless highlights why a remake is not automatically a safe release: competing launches can affect attention regardless of franchise history.
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Does the PS5 comparison prove Nintendo has a game drought?
No comparable platform release-cadence data in the cited sources establishes a measured PS5 drought or lets readers compare it fairly with Nintendo’s schedule. “PS5-like game droughts” works here as a concern about long gaps between releases, not a quantified condition or a proven outcome that Nintendo remakes would prevent.
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To make that comparison rigorously would require defined periods and comparable platform release data, including what counts as a major release and whether ports, remasters, and remakes are included. Without those measures, the sounder conclusion is narrower: Yang’s account suggests that holding some completed titles could help Nintendo manage gaps, while the broader claim that this prevents droughts remains unproven.
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What a balanced Nintendo release slate would look like
Nintendo should release more remakes when they are compelling games in their own right and fit alongside projects that move its creative output forward. A remake-led schedule may give the company more timing options and help new players reach older games, but nostalgia cannot supply all the new ideas, audiences, or releases a healthy slate needs. Ellis and Yang’s warning, Furukawa’s 2019 emphasis on developer passion, and Miyamoto’s case for accessibility all support a selective approach: remake games because there is a meaningful reason to revisit them, not simply because a calendar has an empty space.
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