 Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door is coming to Nintendo Switch and there's a simple reason why, because you finally persuaded Nintendo that you wanted it. In an interview with GameXplain in 2016, Paper Mario Color Splash director Risa Tabata explained exactly what would be needed for the Thousand Year Door to get a bit more love. When asked whether her team would ever consider remaking this or other previous Mario RPG games, she said, if we made one, would you buy it? The interviewers naturally said yes. Then she responded, I think if we hear that a lot, then it's possible. This and other similar comments inspired the Thousand Year Door community, who threw themselves into the difficult task of convincing Nintendo that, no, really, we genuinely want to replay this cop classic GameCube RPG on Switch. This task has been particularly difficult because certain key decision makers within Nintendo have long been convinced that Mario RPGs aren't actually a good idea. More so than perhaps any other Mario spin-off series, the Paper Mario games are often wildly different to each other, as developers struggle to find exactly what their prospective audience actually wants. This has historically been complicated by Mario's dad Shigeru Miyamoto, who in the years after the Thousand Year Door has actively tried to steer the series away from role-playing game mechanics, under the belief that complexity has been holding Paper Mario back. Famously, during the development of Paper Mario Sticker Star, Miyamoto went so far as to ask, it's fine without a story, so do we really need one? Urged by Miyamoto to simplify the Paper Mario games, and inspired by lessons learned during the development of freshly picked Tingle Rosy Rupyland, the developers began stripping back a lot of the role-playing game elements within the franchise. Instead, Paper Mario has transitioned into a puzzle and adventure game series, designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In an interview at the time of the release of Paper Mario the Origami King, Risa Tabata said, Nintendo's philosophy on game creation is that we don't ignore casual players in creating our games. This, though, is only part of the reason why Nintendo has been hesitant to throw Thousand Year Door fans a bone. The other reason is that the gamers who want deep, dense role-playing games only make up a small fraction of the Mario fan base. Role-playing games come with a large development cost. Writing and stats balancing, it turns out, takes a lot of time. As noted in our recent video on Advance Wars, these games also come with additional costs when considering the global market, as they're very time-consuming to translate into other languages. According to Fire Emblem developer Kentaro Nishimura, this cost, plus the risk of expensive role-playing games underperforming, has led Nintendo to be wary of such projects. He said, When I joined Nintendo, I was told that these kinds of games would never be successful abroad, because they were turn-based games, and turn-based games weren't appreciated outside Japan. While Nintendo may have historically adopted the attitude that role-playing games are doomed to failure in the West, actual sales data has long since proved this a fallacy. Fire Emblem is just one of many Nintendo role-playing game franchises that sell very well worldwide. No matter what Shigeru Miyamoto might think of the idea of a Mario RPG. This particular moment in time is perfect for a Mario RPG revival for other reasons. Firstly, the Super Mario Bros movie has proven that audiences are very ready for a Mario experience that involves less twitchy platforming and more expositional dialogue. Secondly, perhaps more relevantly, the Nintendo Switch has something that the Nintendo GameCube never had, a large consumer base. It's easier for Nintendo to take risks with games like the Super Mario RPG remake on the Switch, because there are potentially more customers, which will go some way to mitigating the risk attached to a role-playing game. Putting the thousand-year door onto a modern console is an easy win. There's an audience that are ready and waiting to play this iconic game on Switch. Nintendo's developers are very well aware of this audience, and there appears to be a desire within the Paper Mario team to provide them with what they want, said Risa Tabata. I do think it's difficult to satisfy certain fans with the adventure game direction if they think of Paper Mario games as simply being RPGs. So why is Paper Mario the thousand-year door coming to the Nintendo Switch? Because you demanded it. The moral of the story is simple. Don't ask, don't get.