Nintendo on introducing new hardware, creating a “wow” moment, feedback from Miyamoto

The Guardian published a new piece on Nintendo today with commentary from Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi and Hisashi Nogami. Takahashi has been overseeing Switch while Nogami has been with the company for many years, and is well-known as the producer of the Splatoon series. In the article, the two developers commented on a wide variety of topics, including what it’s like introducing new hardware, needing to create a “wow” moment for players, and shared some thoughts about legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

You can find these excerpts from Takahashi and Nogami below. For the full article, head on over to The Guardian.

On when Switch became a success and introducing new hardware…

“Before the Switch came out, it was very difficult to explain something unprecedented – a game console that you can play in your house and also carry around with you to play anywhere. But after people started experiencing that, they started talking among themselves. That was when the Switch was flipped, so to speak.” – Takahashi

“It never gets any easier. With anything new it’s the unknown, and people don’t like trying unknown things – they’re always going to be a bit hesitant.” – Nogami

On when the prototype for the Wii Remote was shown to Nintendo’s wider dev team…

“Even among our developers there are often doubts! When the Wii remote was first introduced as a concept, the reaction was: what is that? Is it real? Will it actually work? But once we’d all tried it, we were surprised and delighted by it, and that made us realise that it was going to work out. With the Nintendo Switch, we all knew the concept, but when we picked up the prototype for the first time and saw Mario Kart running perfectly on the smaller screen, we were flabbergasted. Even people who are well aware of the concept and design can’t always tell if something’s going to work.” – Takahashi

“It’s not good enough to put your idea into words; you have to give people a concrete example to show them how it works. It’s on us to create things that allow players to experience that ‘wow’ moment.” – Nogami

On Shigeru Miyamoto…

“He is not involved in the minute details of development, but does oversee entire projects and identifies major issues: this part is bad, this part is bad, THIS part is bad… If he says something’s good, it’s rare, and you know it is. Although he’s been saying quite a few things are good, I should say. He’s actually a shy person – even when he thinks something is well done, he would not often say that to someone directly.” – Takahashi

“I have never once been praised by Mr Miyamoto.” – Nogami

“Perhaps not to your face, but behind your back he’s very pleased with you.” – Takahashi