Nintendo will start producing its own movies over the next few years

After plummeting revenue, Nintendo is looking into new avenues to generate income, including expanding into producing its own feature films.

Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima told The Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan that the company was looking into producing its own films for the first time instead of just licensing out the characters. In order to do so, Nintendo would partner with different studios, but Kimishima was adamant that creative control would remain within the publisher’s hands. Kmishima also said that they weren’t looking into live-action films at this time.

Kimishima told the paper that they were currently looking at different studios around the world to partner with and were open to the production company being outside of Japan. He added that the company was looking for new ways to promote the vast amount of characters Nintendo has within its franchises and feature films seemed like the obvious next step.

The news of Nintendo looking to expand its operations outside of strictly video games comes just a month after the company released its estimates for income and revenue that fell short compared to estimates handed out by analysts. Nintendo’s revenue has steadily declined over the past seven fiscal years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Recently, Nintendo of America sold its 45 percent stake in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, with analysts at the Journal alleging the announcement of the decision to enter the film production market comes after securing those extra funds.

While this won’t be the first time Nintendo franchise characters will be on the big screen — the Super Mario Bros. movie was released more than two decades ago in 1993 — it will be the first time that Nintendo is directly overseeing operations.

There’s no word on which characters will make the leap to film first and when the first movie will being production.