Every Nintendo fan knows about Shigeru Miyamoto and his vital role for the company. The gaming legend is or has been responsible for timeless franchises such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong. He has been at the forefront of Nintendo's creative endeavours for years, and a recent interview with TIME shed some new light on the creator. The interview was composed to reveal seven facts about Miyamoto-san, touching upon everything from upcoming titles like Splatoon to his reputation within the industry.
He started off by revealing that Mario had, at one point, superseded the inklings as the star of Splatoon. This was because the team had difficulty-creating characters that had a level of uniqueness to them.
Miyamoto-san clearly has a reputation throughout Nintendo - and the industry as a whole - as a revolutionary. He is aware of this and strives to make sure it does not intimidate or influence his design teams, saying, “What I am trying to do is not to create an atmosphere where they feel like, 'I will do better than Miyamoto does' or 'I will make a game just to please Miyamoto.'"
While gaming takes up a significant portion of his life he does not see it as the most powerful creative medium. To him novels win out over games because, due to their passive nature, they can control what happens next, despite what the audience thinks should occur.
Another revelation came in the form of his thoughts on profits. “I have explained—in regard to entertainment in general—that if development of products that thrive on creative uniqueness is dictated by those who prioritize sales and profits, the possibilities for the future of entertainment will be limited". While this goes against the very nature of most large business organizations, he stresses that Nintendo continues to focus all of its resources towards innovation.
The interview concluded with the gaming legend's views on hardware. He clarified that Nintendo shall remain in the console business and shall strive to create new ways to play, with each new platform revealing new methods. With regards to past Nintendo consoles his favourites to work on were the Nintendo DS and Wii because of the challenges presented with the new styles of play.
Miyamoto shows no sign of slowing down and continues to bring us incredibly creative new ideas each year. Which of these facts was the most surprising to you? If you could ask Miyamoto one question, what would it be?
[source time.com]
Comments 20
Mine would be:
"Can I shake hands with you Mr.
Miyamoto?"
@BLPs
Followed by:
"How about a selfie together?"
"Another revelation came in the form of his thoughts on profits. “I have explained—in regard to entertainment in general—that if development of products that thrive on creative uniqueness is dictated by those who prioritize sales and profits, the possibilities for the future of entertainment will be limited". While this goes against the very nature of most large business organizations, he stresses that Nintendo continues to focus all of its resources towards innovation."
That I agree with wholeheartedly.
Whenever and wherever you have people making decisions based on monetary considerations alone (basically greed) it's never a good thing...and I'm not just taking about in terms of the video games business but in terms of EVERYTHING; from making video games to governing countries.
I wish I could get his autograph. But alas.....its never gonna happen.
I think strong gameplay is actually a bigger strength of Nintendo than innovation. Too much talk about innovation as the most important aspect scares me a bit.
Fun over profits is always a good thing or we will ge soulless disposable junk like yearly CoD or the paint-by-numbers film industry where cliches are relied upon (even Avengers has cliches galore).
This is why I like Miyamoto, he knows what is really important for games and the industry as a whole.
My 1 game related question would be "whats going on with Project Guard and Project Robot, they were both supposed to release this year"?.
@outburst The followed by "A game of Smash/Mario Kart?"
It is good to see that Miyamoto is indeed maintaining his long-standing commitments to his vision within the workplace, despite all of the rampant spin going on around him. I think that is an even more admirable quality than his direction on actual productions.
Nintendo is a very wise company. Female Dogging out its IPs like Sega and Square Enix would earn Nintendo loads of money in a short time but they would lose value really quickly too.
No one understands what's going on with the Final Fantasy brand today and Sonic, well...
If I met Miyamoto and shook his hand, I think I would actually start crying. I'm serious.
@Kirk Same. He's absolutely right about the industry being limited by sales and profits, especially when the mass market is so resistant to variety and change.
@Priceless_Spork What a horrifying idea mate. I fear this would drive away even the most avid fans. And even my backlog wouldn't last that long to tide me over this timespan.
If I would meet Mr Miyamoto ideally I would bow to him deep and long and would thank him for the countless hours of fun his games provided but I fear I would have my personal Wayne's World-moment.
@VeeFlamesNL Those come out once for each console, not every year or two.
I think that if I met Miyamoto I wouldn't be coherent enough to ask him a question.
Meeting Miyamoto is such big dream of mine. I have so many questions, which I wouldn't know where to start lol.
I can't wait to see what he has in store for us.
I'd ask him what's his favourite animal?
Really hope he's more a cat than dog-person
That's why i'd love to see him work on a smart device killer app for Nintendo.
I mean he'd be confronted with the largest userbase they ever had.
If he can make a game that both typical smart device players and "more serious" gamers enjoy so much that it becomes a classic over the years i don't know what to call him anymore.
@Monado_III I meant I wanted to play a Smash Bros. match or a Mario Kart race with him...
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