According to new statements from a former Star Fox developer, Nintendo is more focused now on making money than games. This statement doesn't come as a total shock given some of Nintendo's actions in the past few years.
There have been several signs as of late that reflect this mindset. This includes the limited release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars. In an interview with Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, he stated that the reasoning behind limiting the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars was due to the "celebration" aspect of Mario's 35th anniversary. Though he also mentioned that this wouldn't become a regular practice after the anniversary, it wasn't the most satisfactory answer to many who questioned why these games were only being released for a limited time.
Former Star Fox programmer Giles Goddard, CEO at Chuhai Labs, posted an ask me anything request on the Nintendo subbreddit, and fans wasted no time asking a great amount of questions. One question asked how the passing of Satoru Iwata affected Nintendo; Goddard replied that the company is now run by the shareholders. Another question asked how he felt Nintendo has changed over the years, and in his response, he said that he feels that Nintendo's "primary focus is now money."
I am Giles Goddard, I made Star Fox with Shigeru Miyamoto, worked on Super Mario 64 and created 1080 Snowboarding. I have worked in the Japanese games industry for more than 30 years, run my own development studio and am about to release a new snowboarding game for VR, ask me anything! from nintendo
Satoru Iwata was the former president of Nintendo, and he passed away in 2015. He was well regarded as one of the finest businessmen in the industry and his primary focus was to make games that made people happy. He was willing to cut his own salary in the face of the Wii U bombing, showing how much he cared for the company and the workers. The Ask Iwata book, which released this year, details his various deeds and celebrates the former Nintendo president.
Satoru Iwata's passing no doubt dramatically affected the company. While it's impossible to know for sure what Nintendo's mindset is like nowadays, and this is still an opinion from someone who no longer works at Nintendo, it does at least give a small glimpse into what the workings of the company might be like in modern times. If it is true that Nintendo is being mostly run by shareholders now, that would explain the recent decisions being made that are seen as being anti-consumer, and largely motivated by profit more than quality. That's why this explanation for Nintendo's decisions in the past few years is unfortunately not that surprising. Hopefully in the future Nintendo will reject this mindset and focus once more on high quality games.
Source: CurrentCEOGiles/Reddit