Miyamoto Explains Nintendo's Decision to Pursue Motion Controls

[Steven Bogos]

Miyamoto Explains Nintendo's Decision to Pursue Motion Controls

Ten years after the Wii's release date, Shigeru Miyamoto gives some insight on why Nintendo decided to pursue such a unique control method.

The Wii (not to be confused with the Wii U) was undoubtedly a massive success for Nintendo.
Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed is a new documentary exploring the world of video games and their creators, and in Episode 3, the creators catch up with Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto to talk about the Wii. Miyamoto spoke about the team's decision to go with motion controls for the console - the decision that arguably made the Wii the powerhouse it was.

Miyamoto said that less and less people were getting into games because, at the time, controllers and games were getting more and more complex and complicated. When you look at stuff like the GameCube and Xbox controllers, compared to the humble SNES and NES controllers, you can see why he thought that. He said that this sparked Nintendo to create a concept for a controller that was much more accessible to a larger audience.

You can see his full response here:

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/809882253643935744]

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/809882253643935744]

Permalink

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Miyamoto said that less and less people were getting into games because, at the time, controllers and games were getting more and more complex and complicated. When you look at stuff like the GameCube and Xbox controllers, compared to the humble SNES and NES controllers, you can see why he thought that. He said that this sparked Nintendo to create a concept for a controller that was much more accessible to a larger audience.

... Wat?

I was a kid just getting into games back then (yeah, I was a tad late), and I don't think I ever went "Dear me, this is much too complicated for my simple mind!". I want to see actual statistics, because I find the idea of a controller being too complex for someone and causing them to skip out on games ridiculous. Not to mention that literally any other control method was leaps and bounds ahead of whatever the Wii could offer.

 

[Aerosteam]

Miyamoto said that less and less people were getting into games because, at the time, controllers and games were getting more and more complex and complicated. When you look at stuff like the GameCube and Xbox controllers, compared to the humble SNES and NES controllers, you can see why he thought that. He said that this sparked Nintendo to create a concept for a controller that was much more accessible to a larger audience.

... Wat?

I was a kid just getting into games back then (yeah, I was a tad late), and I don't think I ever went "Dear me, this is much too complicated for my simple mind!". I want to see actual statistics, because I find the idea of a controller being too complex for someone and causing them to skip out on games ridiculous. Not to mention that literally any other control method was leaps and bounds ahead of whatever the Wii could offer.

You don't see a link between the popularity of mobile games to their control schemes which tend to be very simple?

I raise you Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Jetpack Joyride, every hidden object game ever. Extremely popular games that you only need a single finger to play.

Whether having a simple controls has anything to do with how popular they are, I don't know, but I'm sure some appeal of gaming on a mobile phone is how easy it is to grasp (pun intended).

 

[Amaror]

nevermind - please remove

 

[munx13]

Miyamoto said that less and less people were getting into games because, at the time, controllers and games were getting more and more complex and complicated. When you look at stuff like the GameCube and Xbox controllers, compared to the humble SNES and NES controllers, you can see why he thought that. He said that this sparked Nintendo to create a concept for a controller that was much more accessible to a larger audience.

... Wat?

I was a kid just getting into games back then (yeah, I was a tad late), and I don't think I ever went "Dear me, this is much too complicated for my simple mind!". I want to see actual statistics, because I find the idea of a controller being too complex for someone and causing them to skip out on games ridiculous. Not to mention that literally any other control method was leaps and bounds ahead of whatever the Wii could offer.

You don't see a link between the popularity of mobile games to their control schemes which tend to be very simple?

I raise you Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Jetpack Joyride, every hidden object game ever. Extremely popular games that you only need a single finger to play.

Whether having a simple controls has anything to do with how popular they are, I don't know, but I'm sure some appeal of gaming on a mobile phone is how easy it is to grasp (pun intended).

Mobile games are popular because almost everyone has a phone to play them. Touch controls are only there because there are almost no other options.
Hell, my dad stopped playing games on his phone as soon as he got one with a touch screen because he found it to be too fidley.

 

[sXeth]

Miyamoto said that less and less people were getting into games because, at the time, controllers and games were getting more and more complex and complicated. When you look at stuff like the GameCube and Xbox controllers, compared to the humble SNES and NES controllers, you can see why he thought that. He said that this sparked Nintendo to create a concept for a controller that was much more accessible to a larger audience.

... Wat?

I was a kid just getting into games back then (yeah, I was a tad late), and I don't think I ever went "Dear me, this is much too complicated for my simple mind!". I want to see actual statistics, because I find the idea of a controller being too complex for someone and causing them to skip out on games ridiculous. Not to mention that literally any other control method was leaps and bounds ahead of whatever the Wii could offer.

I jumped to Playstation at least partially because of the weird ass GameCube controller (along with the 64's lacklustre library (sure its got some classics, but a lot of meh and a lot of 3rd party loss was starting to set in) kind of irking me). Even the Xbox control with the misaligned joysticks bugs me.

 

[drkchmst]

So he's saying that during the whole GameCube era, they say around contemplating how insane the n64 controller was?

 

[Maze1125]

Believe it or not. A lot of people struggle with controllers. Try having an adult who hasn't played a game in their life try and play a conventional First Person Shooter. It's crazy how much they struggle with the analogue sticks.

That's because analogue sticks are absolutely terrible controls for FPSes, nothing crazy about it.

I've been playing games, both PC and console, for my entire life and the only thing worse than analogue sticks for FPS aiming is back when FPSes had four arrow keys that controlled both aiming and movement leaving you without strafe controls or the ability to aim up or down.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Don't ever give up on motion, Nintendo. Regardless of what any "real" gamers say, you struck gold with this technology in terms of what it can do for gaming. I've still yet to play any shooter as fluid and simply joyous in its moment-to-moment gameplay as the Wii Metroid Prime games. Not their GameCube counterparts, nor any mouse-based shooter.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I see you're STILL trying to justify the existence of those god awful motion controls Nintendo. Face it, the technology just is not there yet to make something like motion controls work. There's nothing motion controls have been used for that plain old controllers couldn't do just as good or better, especially given how utterly unreliable all motion controls up to this point have been and how few games that have come out that actually used them for things that motion controls could do which standard controllers couldn't.

Oh, and apparently Miyamoto thinks people have the IQs of a fish if he thinks that there's anyone who has any difficulty using a controller after more than 2 minutes.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I was thinking the same thing at the time, honestly -- even if keeping track of the controls on a modern gamepad is easier than it looks, looks are what will determine whether people will even bother to try or not. "I have to keep track of two joysticks plus fourteen buttons?!" Meanwhile, you show them something like the Wii, where people are playing golf by physically swinging an imaginary club, and they immediately get it. It's only later, when they actually get it home, that they realize the limitations -- namely, it can't do third-person games worth a shit because there's no second stick for controlling the camera. Still, it had the best FPS scheme of any console ever, as the Metroid Prime games and Call of Duty ports showed. Pity nobody wanted to develop for it because it had about half the processing power of its contemporaries.