Nintendo will survive 100 years and outlive Zynga, says Oddworld creator

Oddworld Inhabitants founder and Abe's Oddysee creator Lorne Lanning has said he believes Nintendo will outlive some of its competition and still be around in a hundred years.

"When I look at the history of Nintendo, I say, 'Nintendo is gonna be here in 100 years.' I have no doubt," said Lanning in an interview with VentureBeat.

"I doubt Microsoft will be here in 100 years," he added. "I know Zynga won't be here in 100 years. I've been here longer than Zynga."

In the short term, many games industry analysts have called the potential of the Wii U into question, with the console being forced up against the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the coming months. The company is currently experiencing rude health with the 3DS, however, and has billions of dollars in its cash reserves.

For the Wii U, the Mario maker has currently lined up The Wonderful 101, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, and Super Mario 3D World for release across 2013 and 2014.

Nintendo, which is a 124-year-old company, was founded in 1889 as a producer of playing cards, but attempted to diversify its business in the 20th century. Before arriving at family-friendly video games, the company attempted to get rich with instant rice, nude playing cards, and discreet love hotels.

Lanning also praised Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, saying, "Satoru Iwata came out and said people were asking him, 'When are you gonna lay off your development staff?' I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was basically, 'Laying off development is not going to solve our problems. Building great games is what we do and we're going to continue doing it.'"

"When he said that, in my opinion, he was immortalized in the creative community. I would work with him in a second. When a man in that type of position, in a world where the golden rule is the rule and that's what's expected at public companies, he stood up and said, 'That's not what we're about. We're about building great stuff. We have great people to build great stuff. We're gonna do that.'"

Speaking about his current development projects, Lanning added that "we're still building what we set out to build. Now we have to be clever and smaller in how we think, but we're more self-empowered than we've ever been."