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Shinya Takahashi

Over the past few years, we’ve heard more and more about Nintendo letting the younger generation of developers step into the limelight. Shigeru Miyamoto himself has also spoke previously about wanting to step back so that some of the newer staff can thrive.

Nintendo commented about this as part of a new feature on The New York Times. One noteworthy quote specifically is from Miyamoto, who said that he’s looking to bring in “designers who aren’t super-passionate game fans” because he wants them to have “different interests and skill sets.”

Over the past few years, we’ve seen an uptick in Nintendo’s dedication to DLC. President Tatsumi Kimishima just said yesterday that the company intends to beef up its approach in that area next year. And almost all of Nintendo’s releases this year have seen free or paid DLC.

Shinya Takahashi, Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development Division general manager, recently spoke to IGN and talked about why DLC is a good fit on Switch. He explained to the site:

Creating the Switch was no easy task. In previous interviews, Nintendo has brought up how the word “balance” was key during development. This was something that was mentioned again in an interview with Toyo Keizai.

General Switch producer Yoshiaki Koizumi noted how game developers tend to be interested memory and a quality GPU for higher specs. As a developer himself, Koizumi can understand this. However, there was also the need to make the machine light, small, and stylish while giving consideration to the battery as well. On top of everything else, Nintendo only had a set amount of time and resources to produce the new console. So ultimately, balancing all of these different aspects was the most difficult part in developing Switch.

Le Monde published a new interview with Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi today. Takahashi discussed Switch shortages and how the production line has now improved, possible future collaborations, how Super Mario Odyssey’s innovation will come from the use of HD Rumble, and more. Takahashi was even asked about the futures of Wave Race and 1080°.

We’ve rounded up the more notable comments from Takahashi below. Note that the responses were translated with Google, so it’s a bit rough around the edges. Still, you should be able to get a pretty decent idea as to what was said.

The Verge published some choice quotes from some of the developers at Nintendo, including Shinya Takahashi, general manager of Nintendo’s software division, Nintendo EPD. Takahashi started off by commenting on when it makes sense to introduce a new IP.

He said:

“It’s not just about new characters. It’s also about thinking about how people will accept new systems and gameplay. Sometimes new intellectual property is the best way to introduce that.”

“Whenever we see a new, really fun prototype, there’s always going to be a moment where we think: ‘How do we give the most people the opportunity to play this? Is it something that needs to be in a Mario game, or is this something that feels like it should go in a new direction?’ And that’s a debate that happens every single time.”

A little while back, Famitsu published an interview with Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi and Yoshiaki Koizumi all about Switch in one of its issues. It was extremely extensive, covering the system’s origins and early development (including some involvement from Satoru Iwata). The two developers also touched on numerous other topics such as going with a single screen, choosing the name out of thousands, tying in smartphone usage to online play and making it paid, system updates, VR, and why the January event was held in Japan. Again, there is a lot here.

We’ve now readied a pretty complete translation of the interview. Continue on below for the extensive discussion featuring Takahashi and Koizumi.

A new interview with Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi has appeared from a recently-published Japanese magazine. In it, Takahashi talked a bit about software for Switch.

Takahashi said that Nintendo is preparing new IP one after another. There is / are title(s) in development that take advantage of the Joy-Con.

The interviewer asked if there are revolutionary out-of-the-box titles like Brain Age on the way. To that, Takahashi said he can’t discuss any details, but of course they are planning it. He also stressed the importance of indie games like Snipperclips for Nintendo.

Note that Takahashi isn’t saying Nintendo is working on a Brain Age successor or sequel. Rather, there is something out-of-the-box (unconventional) planned.

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Nintendo of America put up a couple of additional videos for MAR10 Day on its Twitter account a few hours ago. In both, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Shinya Takahashi, and Shigeru Miyamoto were asked about the one game they’d play if they were stuck on an island. Find their responses below.


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IGN just uploaded a video about how Nintendo made the Switch. There are a lot of interesting statements from both Yoshiaki Koizumi and Shinya Takahashi.

Check it out below:

Nintendo has a notable goal in mind with Switch: bringing people together. In an interview with The Independent, general producer Yoshiaki Koizumi spoke about wanting to create an experience similar to cards. With cards, people are able to play together and “play eye to eye”. That’s where Switch’s portability aspect comes into play, including the Joy-Con.

Koizumi explained:

“When you have a deck of cards, you can get family and friends together and play games that everyone knows the rules to. It’s very accessible, everyone can sit down and play together, and that became kind of a root for us as we thought about this. For generations, people would play eye to eye as they thought about strategy. We wanted to recreate some of that experience using technology.”

“You need a certain kind of hardware to make that social situation possible. And in the past we’ve had that experience with NES and SNES of having two controllers and it definitely felt like the social experience where your friend would come over to your house and play with you, and so we wanted to make that situation not only more possible, but more visible outside the house, to see people playing together like that. It’s the addition of two controllers from the start that makes creating those things possible.

Of course you could go online and play video games with strangers that you’ve never met before, but something a little bit different is possible here, where you can take the system outside of your house and run into someone you’ve never met before, hand them a controller and start playing right there, and that’s the sort of thing that, when you experience it, makes the other person and yourself very happy.”


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