>>718089797
That's not how Nintendo operates at least. They don't greenlight a project until you build a gameplay prototype and demonstrate how it'd be fun. Pic related - development on Splatoon didn't begin until the team came up with a gameplay concept and pitched it to Miyamoto.

Of course maybe it's not ideal having to justify yourself to a grumpy senile man before you're allowed to get the gears turning, but it makes more business sense than stuff like Rare's Everwild, where Microsoft allowed them to spend 10 years in development doing... who fucking knows