Miyamoto is feared and is harsh with employees, but pushes for quality
Upending tea tables and kidnapping employees are just some of the actions that Shigeru Miyamoto has been known for during development cycles. Even with that in mind, however, one might be surprised as to how Miyamoto interacts with other members of a team. Check out this blurb below, which discusses development of Wii Sports Resort:
Iwata: Okay, while taking that into account, could you tell me what the harshest thing was that Miyamoto-san said to you?
Shimamura: The harshest thing was…
Iwata: Given that he makes no allowances for planners…
Shimamura:
It came as quite a shock when he said “Make another mode!” He would also constantly tell us things like: “You can’t do this!” He’d say things like: “If you carry on like this, we’re never going to get this finished!” He would always be kind enough to give us this kind of “advice”.All: (laughter)
Iwata: I see – “advice”. (laughs) How about you, Yamashita-san?
Yamashita: I worked on a cycling race about which Miyamoto-san said: “This is incredibly dull!”
Iwata: He doesn’t pull any punches, does he? (laughs)
Yamashita:
He said: “What’s fun about this?” I had no choice but to respond by saying “Ah, okay. I see…” but actually it was really harsh.Iwata: Calling something “incredibly dull” is indeed harsh. There’s nothing positive you can take away from that.
I don’t think he’s really a bully or anything, but it is interesting to see that he would call someone else’s work “incredibly dull.” But hey, it’s Miyamoto! I think that in these instances, he is striving to create a quality game, which is evident in the snippet below.
Shimamura: Anyway, as H-san was overseeing archery, he was incredibly good at it. Normally he would have no problem in hitting the bulls-eye time after time.
Yamashita: But during the progress report meeting, when he was demonstrating archery, he was shaking really badly.
Shimamura: If you looked at the screen, you could see that he wasn’t able to hold it steady at all. I’d never seen anyone shaking so bad before when playing the game so I said: “You’re shaking!” He replied: ”It’s nerves!” (laughs)
All: (laughter)
Yamashita: Then after having it pointed it out to him, the shaking got even worse.
Shimamura: The arrows were flying all over the place. I wonder if the Wii MotionPlus is the world’s first device that’s able to detect whether someone is nervous.
Iwata: (laughs) So did he get through that nerve-wracking presentation without Miyamoto-san giving him the thumbs down?
Shimamura: On that occasion…
Yamashita: As you might be able to guess, Miyamoto-san did indeed give him the thumbs down!
All: (laughter)
Yamashita: But following that, it improved greatly.
