The above statement is pretty much a perennial argument by Nintendo's critics and it's also one of the biggest hoaxes in gaming. The notion that Nintendo hasn't created a new franchise since Pokemon in the late 90s is misguided and downright stupid if you really look into. Are Mario, Pikachu, Link and Fox shoehorned in games where they don't belong? Hell yes they are, but that doesn't mean Nintendo has had no new ideas. I'm going to go against the norm and say that Nintendo have, since the beginning of the GC-GBA era ( 2001-2008 ), published and developed a ton of new franchises. Let's start with the GameCube. Amidst the the torrent of rehashes such as Mario Party 4-7 and Pokemon Colosseum, people seemed to have forgotten new franchises such as Pikmin, Eternal Darkness, Chibi Robo, Golden Sun, Geist and Animal Crossing. The problem with the games I just mentioned is that they were either complete commercial flops (Eternal Darkness, Chibi Robo and Geist) or merely moderate successes (Pikmin, AC, Golden Sun).

My question is why should Nintendo create or foster new franchises if you all don't give a crap? When they makes a new franchise and it tanks don't expect them to just sit around pretending everything in A-OK, they're going to turn to what sells, i.e, Mario Party. Now while Nintendo has had a tougher time with new franchises on the GC and GBA, the DS and Wii have been fertile ground! Don't believe me? Here's a list (off the top of my head) of new Nintendo owned franchises on those two systems:

WiiSports

Endless Ocean

Elite Beat Agents

Soma Bringer

Hotel Dusk

Trace Memory

Brain Age

Big Brain Academy

Master of Illusion

Nintendogs

Electroplankton

Excite Truck

Clearly Nintendo is in a better position to innovate in software when they are industry leaders. I believe we can expect more new franchises from them in the coming years. I've listed a bunch of stuff here but that's just the surface, what about all the new franchises with old characters, Starfox Adventures, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, WarioWare? What about all the franchises that are new to all those outside Japan, Fire Emblem and Advance Wars? While Nintendo isn't innocent of exploiting their tried and true names, it is not guilty of being a tired old hack with no new ideas, if you want to point the finger at a company who is, I'd suggest EA or Square.