Miyamoto on Wii U uniting activities, Zelda: Four Swords talk, keeping up with growing gamers, more
Shigeru Miyamoto provided a lot of interesting insight into a bunch of different topics in an IGN interview.
There’s obviously lots of Wii U talk. Miyamoto noted how he’s always been “more nervous than excited” for launches, discussed how the console can unify different activities, and talked about using the system with others.
Other topics include Zelda: Four Swords, which Miyamoto feels possesses “great potential to evolve even further from now” thanks to the evolving nature of networks. He also discussed how Nintendo “had continued debate as to the reason why Four Swords could not expand to the audience the way we really hoped it might have.”
Read on below for that and more, including how his thoughts on how Nintendo can keep up with gamers as they grow.
Miyamoto on launching the Wii U and how it compares to previous releases…
“Of course I’ve experienced a number of times how we as a company launch new hardware, and each time I have to confess I am more nervous than excited. So far, whenever we’ve launched a new hardware platform to the market, people tended to regard us as the competition. They’d discuss how Nintendo would be able to compete with other companies by launching the new hardware. Within ourselves, we have never thought like that.. But it was inevitable that people tended to see things that way. However this time around, I think we are in a better position to be able to forecast upon our messaging, and our messaging is that we are proposing new, unique opportunities.”
Miyamoto on competition and how the Wii U can improve the TV experience…
“When we look around the current situation in the household, in most living rooms, even when different family members are getting together, they are all working on different things – some are working on their note PC, others are watching TV. Even when they are in the same living room, each person is doing his or her own job, irrespective of other members of the family. This time around with Wii U, each of the seemingly different activities we are doing today can be united by taking advantage of both the big TV screen and the smaller, more personalised screen on the Wii U gamepad. And with a Wii U gamepad, TV can be an improved experience as well. For example, web browsing on a TV screen is possible today, but not convenient; with Wii U it is much easier. Above all I think the Wii U is going to be able to unite each and any family by taking advantage of the TV in a more efficient way.”
Miyamoto noting that the Wii U is about bringing people together…
“Yes, exactly. Even though Nintendo has [always] been trying to provide the entire family with the opportunity to get together, the fact of the matter is that from time to time, when for example several family members would like to watch TV programs on the screen, Nintendo’s console hardware was regarded as the obstacle, because they could not see the TV programs they really wanted to see. But with Wii U hardware the situation is going to be completely different… [it] can provide you with the circumstance in which the console cannot be the obstacle to disturb any entertainment that any of the family wishes to enjoy in the living room.”
Miyamoto on how Wii U is supposed to be used with others…
“Wii U can change the entire picture surrounding how video games are played by taking advantage of the two different screens. For example it’s natural in other entertainment such as playing cards that you cannot tell what other players are doing, what cards they’re holding. Before it was not possible to reproduce this kind of enjoyable experience on video game machines. But with Wii U it is possible, not just with card games but also such traditional games as Hide and Seek, and Tag, and that’s why we are including these unique features in the gameplay in Nintendo Land. It is a good example to showcase this variety of different things that have been made possible but Wii U, especially Mario Chase and Luigi’s Ghost Mansion.”
Miyamoto on console/handheld connectivity and why Zelda: Four Swords didn’t “expand to the audience the way we really hoped it might have”…
“Now that a lot of network technologies are evolving, games like [Zelda] Four Swords actually have great potential to evolve even further from now. Internally, we had continued debate as to the reason why Four Swords could not expand to the audience the way we really hoped it might have. One of the dominant opinions as to the reasons why it didn’t sell was ‘Maybe people did not think that they could fully enjoy playing alone, they’d think that they’d need four players together to make the most of it.’ But I thought ‘No no, we should not think in that fashion at all. If we can really tell that the game itself is fun enough, but that there are obstacles to playing with other players, [then] we need to find out what [that obstacle] was really, and get rid of the kind of nuisances and disturbances.”
Miyamoto feels that each time these games are released, they offer something very new…
“The fact of the matter is that we are often asked ‘another Pikmin, another Mario, why won’t you come up with brand new ideas and franchises, et cetera, but… even though we are creating a new iteration for the existing franchise, we are always trying to make unique entertainment, and one way to do this is to take new technologies and apply that so that even the existing franchise will be able to provide you with a brand new experience.”
Miyamoto on how Nintendo can keep up with gamers as they become adults and how its games can continue to meet these changing needs…
“I started working on making video games approximately 30 years ago, but since then I do not feel that I have changed a lot. I am still making games that look and feel almost the same way for players. One thing that is different is that the themes I pick up have much more variety than before; other than that I think even adults who started video games 30 years ago can enjoy them as if they were 30 years younger. From the developer’s perspective, the big difference from 30 years ago is the fact that then, it was mainly children who played with videogames, and adults could not figure out what their sons and daughters were playing. But today, these children have grown up and become parents themselves, so they can understand. So with that change in my mind, I am always trying to create video games that appeal to different generations. Sometimes people say that ‘I have graduated from video games’. But I do not think this is an appropriate term. This unique interactive media called video games can be very conveniently integrated into your ordinary life, and my hope is that I can work on making the applications for games which can attract people and encourage them to be associated with video game technologies one way or another, so that they can even more enjoy their lives.”
