A Moogle  🏳️‍🌈 💻 🎮 🎶 🇸🇪

I also think that Nintendo should do something like a fantasy console like PICO-8, but make it the real deal, with real hardware, or turn one of their old IP into that, and just start making it again. It would be a good way to get kids into programming and capitalize on retro.

They could do the whole thing with an easy to use editor/debugger/toolchain/sprite editor/etc.

You could even turn unused IP into something to sell with that. Like that could be what the ill-fated Iris finally becomes. A game boy super advance that only plays homebrew. For the folks who show talent pick them up for the other platforms maybe?

What do the economics look like for this? One of the hard-won things I've found over the years is that people are *way* more interested in saying they want to make games than actually doing so. With the potential dev outlay on SW tools and hardware, how do they even break even?

SmileBASIC has been profitable for years. Pico-8 is very successful. I don't think there's a question of interest.

Both are purely software solutions, which have a distinct edge over rebooting the IRIS hardware line. The DS line has long since been EOL'd, the ARM7TDMI has been surpassed, and rebooting actual silicon production would have an enormous cost.

Nintendo have an extended, but abruptly cut-short history of supporting homebrew by way of projects like Family BASIC. A purely software solution would be amazing, and totally doable if they can get over a crippling case of NIH.