Shigeru Miyamoto has shed light on another long held secret within Nintendo.

Nintendo was asked about their strategy of ”expanding the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP” in their latest earnings call Q&A. While President Shuntaro Furukawa explained the strategy, Miyamoto stepped forward to explain its history.

This plan started 15 years ago, when Miyamoto talked to the late president and CEO Satoru Iwata about Nintendo’s future. In this year, Nintendo released the 3DS and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Miyamoto hesitated to bring Nintendo characters outside video games, particularly because of how they could be depicted. After releasing the Wii, he realized there were limits to how many people would buy video games, compared to the reach of movies, YouTube, even smartphones.

He also realized bringing Nintendo characters to other media, like the movies, could bring new fans back into their video games.

Three years before the Wii U released, Miyamoto and Iwata already saw that Nintendo’s future had to go beyond video games. It was Miyamoto who was able to pursue this vision and maintain Nintendo’s success.