Miyamoto Still Eager to Put the General Public Ahead of the Fans

Michael Grimm

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Feb 23, 2009
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Miyamoto Still Eager to Put the General Public Ahead of the Fans


In a recent Famitsu interview, Shigeru Miyamoto expressed the difficulties he had working with Nintendo and its gamer-centric mindset.

Miyamoto detailed his frustrations with Nintendo's mindset during the GameCube era, saying, "This is a job where you have a plan and you polish it endlessly while getting help from others. If Nintendo's games fail to stand out as games that aren't made that way proliferate, then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made me very sad. That was especially obvious during the GameCube era; Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed by the [non-gaming] general public back then."

Miyamoto disagrees with Nintendo's business decisions during the period, seeing the company's insistence on trying to compete strictly as a videogame company as a bad tactic:
"The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition the same as being number one with the general public?"

Much to the chagrin of "core" gamers, Miyamoto has consistently stated his love for the casual market and rejects ideas of creating traditional sequels for some of gaming's biggest franchises. Nintendo's new business model definitely seems in line with Miyamoto's idea of reaching beyond the typical gamer. Some would say Nintendo has gone so far as to abandon the core gamer, but Shiggy explains his thoughts as ones that are looking at the bigger picture.

"Entertainment is something that you have to look at the world with a very wide eye as you create it. I always thought that, but there were a few years where I was unable to get off other people's trends. It was a dilemma in my mind," he said.

Miyamoto also details his frustrations with the gaming world's fledgling steps into 3D, and having his ideas handicapped by the reality of technical limitations and large development teams:

"I was endlessly fascinated with 3D worlds, but what with all the issues I had to tinker with in terms of rendering and processing speed, it got to the point where I didn't know who was making the games any longer."

While Miyamoto's unwavering support of the Wii and family oriented titles has definitely divided gamers' opinions of him, Miyamoto knows that remaining profitable is job number one. While No More Heroes may be a unique game championed by critics and traditional gamers, its meager sales when compared to Wii Play and Wii Fit, are the only things investors are concerned with.


Source: 1UP [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173211]


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laserwulf

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I don't even think of the Wii in the same ballpark as the PS3 and 360 anymore. If you don't expect any 'hardcore' games from Nintendo, you aren't disappointed. I still want to buy one eventually, to play with my family. It will never replace my 360, though.
 

oliveira8

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Doesnt that picture just makes you wanna punch him in the face...twice!


At least make a new Luigis Mansion...that was fun on the Gamecube...but of course we need a new Mario Kart game.
 

Joeshie

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Doesn't matter to me, I never grew up with Nintendo so I don't particularly care that much for Miyamoto.

Shitsux for longtime Nintendo fans though.
 

grinklehi

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Joeshie said:
Doesn't matter to me, I never grew up with Nintendo so I don't particularly care that much for Miyamoto.

Shitsux for longtime Nintendo fans though.
Brother, you have no idea. Growing up, Miyamoto was one of my icons, revered as much as C&C's Kane or Gygax for being visionaries that applied themselves to reach their dreams. Currently, it seems that his career has plateaud, and he is trying to stall his downfall by releasing simple, family-friendly games as his "next innovation". 'Tis sad to see your childhood heroes fade away, you know?
 

Mstrswrd

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This dissapoints in a way that a few in this thread seem to understand. However, I can't see him ever losing his way fully. Zelda and Mario are his creations, and no-one would allow they're creations, things they made, to go to hell without a fight. Plus, I think he said that his Mario and Zelda teams are already at work on a direct sequel to Galaxy and whatever the new Zelda will be.
 

[Gavo]

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TheNecroswanson said:
grinklehi said:
Joeshie said:
Doesn't matter to me, I never grew up with Nintendo so I don't particularly care that much for Miyamoto.

Shitsux for longtime Nintendo fans though.
Brother, you have no idea. Growing up, Miyamoto was one of my icons, revered as much as C&C's Kane or Gygax for being visionaries that applied themselves to reach their dreams. Currently, it seems that his career has plateaud, and he is trying to stall his downfall by releasing simple, family-friendly games as his "next innovation". 'Tis sad to see your childhood heroes fade away, you know?
Same here dude.
I used to worship this dude for Star Fox and OoT. I was heartbroken when Miyamoto said he was no longer making games for gamers.

Which, doesn't make sense. Not making games for gamers and instead making games for those whom don't play video games will eventually cause a huge backlash where you failed to capture someone who has no interest in you.
Same here. I was actually about to make a thread about this, but I saw this.

I am saddened at Nintendo. Why are they turning their back on the people that rose them up to the heavens for the last decade or so? So they can make more money? The damn Wii already nearly prints money, they could at least make good first-party games...

When you depend on third-party devs for a console to have good games, you know their end is near. Like me, I'm looking forwards to NMH2, which is third-party. And from Nintendo? Noooooooooooooooooooooothing. I've died a little on the inside.

I think that this E3 is Nintendo's last chance for longtime fans. After that...sayonara, sweetheart.
 

nova18

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I don't know why but all I saw when I read this was:

"Fuck Nintendo fans, all they did was pay for us to get here. But now we want to sell substandard games to people who we dont owe anything to. As for our fans, well there are other consoles out there for you now."


Bless you Miyamoto, I respected you once.
 

rekabdarb

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Jun 25, 2008
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hey, hes sticking with his cash crop! (the picture)
but seriously, if its in america, its not hard to milk money from the masses, lets be honest, We're retarded! WOOOOOOOOOO and we celebrate our general stupidity as a society how pathetic and sad
 

Osafune2

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I still can't believe I wasted £180 on a Wii. The most expensive dust collector on the market. Metroid Prime 3 and Twilight Princess are about the only good games on the system, even Nintendo stalwarts such as Mario Kart have been completely ruined.
 

Samurai Goomba

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"...rejects ideas of creating traditional sequels for some of gaming's biggest franchises."

Ha ha ha ha ha! Come on, this is Nintendo. Name me ONE other company that milks its classic franchises to the extent that Ninty does. Not even SEGA creates as many sequels.

Also, am I the only one who sees the irony? Miyamoto is griping about the difficulty of getting away from the "gaming" audience. Excuse me? You make GAMES! What do you expect?

It's like Harley-Davidson griping that only the biker crowd buy their bikes.
 

n01d34

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nova18 said:
I don't know why but all I saw when I read this was:

"Fuck Nintendo fans, all they did was pay for us to get here. But now we want to sell substandard games to people who we dont owe anything to. As for our fans, well there are other consoles out there for you now."


Bless you Miyamoto, I respected you once.
Really? Cause way I see it trying to please their devoted fans was how they ended up last place in the previous generation.

What made Nintendo successful was bringing new people into the hobby. The NES and SNES and Wii are a testemant to that. During the lifespans of The 64 and Gamecube they slowly drifted away from the top spot. Now that they're reaching out to new blood they're back on top.

Should they release more first party titles? Definitely. But more importantly they should be trying to entice talented third party developers to make great games for the core audience on their platform. A lot of classic NES and SNES games came from third parties, Final Fantasy, Contra, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong Country, Castlevania ect.

At the moment most of the third party titles on their system are rubbish and it's crowding out the market meaning it's harder to find the gems amoungst the trash. The Nintendo "Seal of Quality" is now meaningless and that is a shame.
 

NoSeraph

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Like the article said, Nintendo is a business, and businesses exist to make money: "Miyamoto knows that remaining profitable is job number one."

Although I'm very disappointed by the direction that Nintendo is going, I can't say that I blame them. I wouldn't view it so much as their abandoning their chief demographic to make more money, but rather doing so in order to survive as a corporation. It becomes increasingly obvious that the Wii no longer competes for the same market as the 360 and PS3 by way of their game libraries, but by removing itself from this competition Nintendo can financially keep their heads above the water.

Another thing that I'm disappointed by is what I view as Miyamoto's attempt to veil what seems to be Nintendo's failure to adapt to the traditional market, saying that the "creation process" was "for nothing" when games produced on competing platforms were proving more successful.

A failure to adapt and a lack of willingness to compete are what have made Nintendo the media and family-friendly darling it is today, but it's also what has caused so much ire from what used to be the industry's most loyal fans.
 

KDR_11k

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grinklehi said:
Brother, you have no idea. Growing up, Miyamoto was one of my icons, revered as much as C&C's Kane or Gygax for being visionaries that applied themselves to reach their dreams. Currently, it seems that his career has plateaud, and he is trying to stall his downfall by releasing simple, family-friendly games as his "next innovation". 'Tis sad to see your childhood heroes fade away, you know?
Now take a step back and think about it: Why does he have so many fans in first place? Where did they come from? Didn't they come from his ability to create games that draw people into gaming and change the definition of their own genre? Isn't the point of his genius status that he can create game concepts noone ever expected? Why do you expect him to keep working on one niche?

[Gavo said:
]I am saddened at Nintendo. Why are they turning their back on the people that rose them up to the heavens for the last decade or so?
The last decade? The last decade saw Nintendo falling more and more into a niche, getting closer elimination with every passing generation and people constantly talking about Nintendo exiting the console manufacturing business and instead becoming a third party. Great job of "lifting" them there, guys! You were killing them and now you think they owe you total devotion? The core abandoned Nintendo long before Nintendo abandoned the core. In turn Nintendo looked at who they REALLY abandoned: The mainstream. The people who were left in the dirt by the whole evolution of gaming into a more and more sophisticated full time activity that required its own mindset to partake in. When you see someone who doesn't game the regular mindset was "he's not a customer" but Nintendo changed that into "he is not a customer yet", avoiding the defeatism that is appealing to the established "demographics" and instead adopting a positive mindset that sees the limits of the gaming audience as a hurdle to be overcome rather than an absolute limit that is untouchable.

Hardcore gamers and fans say they are who made Nintendo great. That is true. But they were not the only ones! There were many more million people who bought Nintendo's system during their prime that got lost in subsequent generations. These people are a far larger portion of the group that made Nintendo successful. Any gratitude the fans deserve pales compared to the gratitude these lost and now found again gamers deserve.
 

Dentedgod

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My Wii just sits there, I had such high hopes for the system but the only thing its good for is playing Wii sports when I have a party, everything else is crap made for little kids. They even kiddiefied Zelda to the point that I couldn't play it for more than an hour. I've been unhappy with Nintendo since the gamecube and now, because of the Wii, I'm never buying a Nintendo product again.
 

spyrewolf

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say what you like about miyamoto and the wii, but he's right. Us core gamers are a niche market, that's the bottom line, we have expectations that need to be met, tight graphic's sound, innovations, etc etc.... miyamoto may have abandoned his fans sure, but if you had a device that printed money I'm sure you'd be "hell fans are overated, money is better" ..i know i would.

but, if you look at the general public they want something they can pick up play and put away and not think about for another week. more people want this, they have less expectations than the core gamers, hence why the wii is a major success.
 

Booze Zombie

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oliveira8 said:
Doesnt that picture just makes you wanna punch him in the face...twice!


At least make a new Luigis Mansion...that was fun on the Gamecube...but of course we need a new Mario Kart game.
Twice? You're move reserved than myself. I'd hit him until his smile was embedded in the ground like Boris The Spider.

He's gotta realise that eventually, the casual gamers will either give up gaming or turn into gamers, so he's going to have to shift back to core eventually, because core will be all that's left.