The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, Nintendo veteran of 38 years who most recently worked on the Ocarina of Time remake, says keeping staff around long-term is beneficial to the entirety of a studio – and the quality of its franchises, too.

Speaking in a new interview with GameSpot, Aonuma explains why Nintendo – and other developers overseas – aren't as likely to face waves of layoffs as Western teams might be. Heck, this year alone, we've seen many… Microsoft's plans to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox immediately spring to mind.

According to the Zelda producer, though, there are benefits to retaining your staff over the years, as Nintendo does.

"I think you see a real benefit to having some very long-term-tenured staff members around who have shared the same experiences over time because every time you get to the next step, it's easier to discuss how to proceed, or if you're going to do something new," he says.

With newcomers joining the studio, you want folks who know how to introduce them to long-standing processes, series, and the like that they might be less familiar with.

"When you have new staff coming in, of course you want to make sure that you're bringing everyone up with a lot of discussion, explaining how to do things, why you're doing things certain ways, as well as the language that you're using, but that takes some more time as well." This all calls for "a bit of balance," in the producer's words: "You don't want your new staff doing things by rote or without understanding the reasons; you have to invest there."

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