Miyamoto on new characters/ideas, using 3DS with Wii U, episodic gaming, and lots more
Shigeru Miyamoto interviews continue to roll in. Polygon published a Q&A with the Nintendo creator earlier today, covering areas such as new characters and ideas, 3DS interaction with Wii U, episodic gaming, and a whole lot more.
Read on below for Miyamoto’s comments.
Miyamoto on how with Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, he’s been working very closely with the game’s director to make sure he doesn’t “stray off in the wrong direction and that he stays focused on the elements that he needs to.”
“In general, in the games where I am the direct producer, I tend to work very closely on the title. In particular I work in a role where I am playing the game. I’m checking the game regularly and I’m there to support the director and to make sure they do the job they need to do.”
Miyamoto on how the 3DS’ glasses-free 3D was the key thing Miyamoto wanted for Luigi’s Mansion 2…
“The first was using the 3D visuals to give a real sense, a true sense of realism to the mansion itself, to make it feel like it’s a place that exists beyond the screen. The second is having that second screen down below where you have a map and you can check the map at any time. Those are two very important features of 3DS that we wanted to leverage.”
Miyamoto on the balance of new ideas and bringing popular franchises to Nintendo’s systems…
“We obviously are interested in bringing out new ideas, but at the same time we also have our hands full with trying to bring many of our popular franchises to new systems. So, the struggle for us then becomes, how do we find the balance in there and try to deliver the content that people want while also surprising them with something new?”
“Looking at, for example, Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is a game that we’ve been making for essentially 10 years now in different iterations. With the latest version [Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS] … we really finally feel like we’ve fleshed out that Animal Crossing idea into sort of the definitive version of that game. So, in game development there are a couple of different approaches you can take, and one is to take the franchises that already exist and continue to develop those and develop deeper content for them and evolve those franchises in new ways.”
Miyamoto on how when people ask what new is coming from Nintendo, they really mean, “What’s the next character after Mario or what’s the next character after Pikmin?”
“From my perspective, we approach it not from, ‘What is the next character?’ But really, ‘What is there within this structure of video games or this sphere of video games, from which we can create new play structures?’ and ‘How can we develop these new types of play structures and new types of games and deliver those to consumers in a way that will be satisfying for them?’ In some cases it may be that those new structures will use existing franchises. So we’re focused more on the play and the interaction rather than necessarily on a specific character as the IP.”
Miyamoto on how a small team within Nintendo has been working on new ideas…
“There are, within the room in which I work, a number of people who are very passionate about wanting to do new things and do different things. In fact, we do have a small team that’s been formed and is working on new ideas. Hopefully we will be able to share those with you at a time when those ideas have taken more concrete form.”
Miyamoto on the possibility of letting the 3DS be an extra screen for Wii U…
“Of course within Nintendo we’ve been giving a lot of thought to this and connectivity itself is something that we’ve been working on for many years. The problem then of course [with the GameCube] was that you had some people who might have both systems, but many people didn’t. So the connectivity features were something that couldn’t be enjoyed by all players. That was really our drive and focus with creating Wii U and the Gamepad. It was enabling that second screen to be something that was a part of the system itself, so that people were able to have the full experience there. Separate from how the GamePad and Wii U are leveraging some of those connectivity ideas, we’re also exploring how Nintendo 3DS can connect to Wii U and different ways that we have data exchanges between those two.
“So while we don’t currently have anything that we can talk about officially that’s going to leverage cross-play with a single title, we are looking at different ways to leverage the 3DS connection with the Wii U; how we can share that data and how we can allow people to take advantage of those sorts of connectivity features.”
Miyamoto on whether Nintendo is considering functionality like the PS4’s ability to look at a gamer’s buying habits and pre-load software it thinks the gamer might like onto the console ahead of time…
“There’s nothing I could really say from a Nintendo standpoint. We do have features like SpotPass that does allow for data to be delivered overnight while you’re sleeping and things like that and again this isn’t necessarily what Nintendo’s doing, but technologically speaking the technology exists. For example, if somebody were to be able to access a shop from a cell phone and make a purchase from a cell phone and then maybe have that content be downloaded to your system, that type of a technological structure already exists. So there’s certainly the possibility that we could look to explore that area further, but it’s not anything that we’re prepared to announce or really talk about at this point.”
Miyamoto on episodic games…
“When we first released The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of the Ages and Oracle of Seasons on GameBoy Color many years ago, the original idea for those games was for them to be more episodic in content and the development actually started with the notion of potentially trying to sell dungeons individually. At the time that we were working on the Oracle games, we felt that it just wasn’t right to deliver the game in that fashion. But when we look at, for example, what we’ve done with the eShop and the possibilities that lie there and particularly with the fact that we’re able to patch now existing games that have already been released, that then opens up the possibility for downloadable content or adding new levels to a game that’s already been released.”
“So certainly we’re seeing the way that this is already changing things and it’s definitely an area that we’re still looking at and we’ll continue to look at. From where the technology is and the eShop has developed to at this point, we do have the ability to sell as a package game or only as a digital game, we have the ability to sell in increments or different installments so we can explore those different functions.”
Miyamoto on why Luigi is getting a year of his own rather than another Nintendo character…
“Well, Luigi has been one of our characters for many, many years, but we’ve never really had much in the way of games that have Luigi in the starring role. He’s had sort of a more prominent role in the Mario and Luigi series and there is one of those games coming out this year, but with that game and then with Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon coming, we felt it was really the time to make this the year of Luigi.”
Miyamoto on how Nintendo can increase the number of people playing Wii U games…
“…most convenient for people to have connected to their living room television. I think there is a lot more that we can do from a systems standpoint and so we’re continuing to look at improvements that we can make to the system itself,” he said. “New features that we can add and, of course, more important than that is really delivering a strong software line for Wii U and software that takes advantage of the uniqueness of the system itself and in particular the GamePad.”
Miyamoto on fully utilizing the GamePad…
“We’re really focused on delivering content that takes advantage of that GamePad interaction and makes that second screen something that’s very meaningful and so that’s where we need to put our focus. So we’re going to continue in the coming months to enhance the system, develop the system, and then also put our primary focus on developing strong content to make the Wii U a very appealing piece of hardware that I think when we get a couple years down the road it’s going to seem very natural for people that Wii U is the system that they would have connected to their living room television.”
Miyamoto on how Nintendo is still learning how people are using the Wii U that so closely marries a television console to a handheld tablet…
“That’s a very important element for us. For me and also for the staff, it’s bringing that system home and watching how people who don’t usually play games interact with it. There are a lot of different ways people use it.”
