Iwata Saw Miyamoto As A Rival When He First Started Out

"That’s embarrassing to admit now"

by Damien McFerran Sat 27th Dec 2014

Shigeru Miyamoto is arguably the world's most famous game designer, and not someone you'd want to set yourself against in a professional capacity.

However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has admitted in a recently-translated interview with 4Gamer that when he was starting out in the industry, he decided to make Mario's dad his rival:

So, I have this strange sense of duty regarding the codifying of the 'Miyamoto Methodology', because I feel like it would be useful to the game industry if you could put it into words. I started up a project similar to 'Iwata Asks' for that purpose. And, of course, wanted to see it put into words so I could understand it too, because back when I was just starting out, I sort of arbitrarily decided that Miyamoto was my rival, though that's embarrassing to admit now.

Would you believe that for a long time I'd just decided within myself, completely arbitrarily and not at all reciprocated, that he was my rival and I wanted to do something to just give him hell.

However, Iwata reveals that very quickly he was in awe of Miyamoto's talent, and admits he's an "amazing person" who possesses a methodology that he himself simply doesn't have. He then goes on to try and explain how Miyamoto approaches problem solving in game design, stating that the Nintendo veteran is a "genius":

Miyamoto also says that when a problem just can't be solved no matter what, someone is lying. He doesn't mean lying in a bad way, but that the person's thought-process is mistaken, or they're looking at the problem the wrong way.

Miyamoto is like, how do I put this, he's a genius at creating perception changes. Explaining the value of changing one's perception in an easily understood manner makes people happy, so it's a very interesting skill (laughs).

You can read the entire interview here.

[source nintendoeverything.com, via 4gamer.net]

Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media's sites from an editorial perspective. He's also the editor of Time Extension, the network's newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming's past glories.

1
Ralizah
Sat 27th Dec 2014

I would LOVE an auto-biography from someone high up at Nintendo.

2
Pete41608
Sat 27th Dec 2014

This article has taught me 2 things:

1) Iwata worships Shiggy
2) I can't read or understand the Japanese language

3
HylianJowi
Sat 27th Dec 2014

Iwata talked about this rivalry in a few of his GDC keynotes; it actually helped form some of his most solid philosophies on game development at Nintendo. Iwata had quite the chip on his shoulder when he was younger, and thought his genius programming would guarantee his software higher sales than that of Miyamoto. He goes on to describe the "painful lesson" of Miyamoto's software outselling his by an enormous margin, and how it helped him identify that technology alone is not enough to make a good game.

Totally worth checking out, especially to see Iwata laughing. It's infectious.

4
Pete41608
Sat 27th Dec 2014

@HylianJowi

Thanks!

5
HylianJowi
Sat 27th Dec 2014

@Pete41608 No problem! Actually, this set of videos has even more detail about Iwata's early years as a developer (and, would you believe it, a gamer!) — poor guy has a hell of a sore throat, though.

6
manu0
Sat 27th Dec 2014

Sounds like Miyamoto and Steve Jobs are very similar. Too bad they never worked together on anything.

7
jariw
Sat 27th Dec 2014

FWIW, when Hiroshi Yamauchi created the departments that would be known as EADs in Kyoto in the beginning of the 1980s, he set up each EAD as a closed department competing with the other departments. That internal competitive approach seems to be all gone now, with Miyamoto working with all EADs, and Iwata setting up a new Kyoto building where the hardware and software departments work closely together.