Miyamoto: Virtual Boy Not a Failure, Just Misunderstood
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
I remember my brother and I having to do some intense room cleaning to get our parents to buy this for us. And you know what? We played the ever-loving shit out of it! It was awesome. We had Wario and the Mario Tennis game, then later some pinball game. We would hunch over that thing and stare into it for hours. Or at least it feels like hours now; for all I know it was 30 minutes and I was just a kid with a short attention span and skewed sense of time. Basically, we were champs and never got headaches. Though I think we were already bespectacled before we got it.
Understand that the only other gaming system we had was an original Game Boy. The fat grey one. So the VB was cool to us.
Understand that the only other gaming system we had was an original Game Boy. The fat grey one. So the VB was cool to us.
Now, Mr. Miyamoto...
There are certain criteria for whether your device was not a failure.
'Simply believing it wasn't' Is not one of those criteria...
Don't get me wrong if the Virtual inspired the 3DS in later years, that's fine, but it's not a success, since we don't know how well received that'll be. Yet...
There are certain criteria for whether your device was not a failure.
'Simply believing it wasn't' Is not one of those criteria...
Don't get me wrong if the Virtual inspired the 3DS in later years, that's fine, but it's not a success, since we don't know how well received that'll be. Yet...
I freakin' loved that virtual boy! I think we got it shortly after it was discontinued...Somehow my Mom got it really cheap, and it came with practically every game made for it. (All 20?) I don't know how, but I never ended up with any headaches and I would play that for long periods of time. The only physical problem I remember was laying prone, but up on my elbows used to get really uncomfortable for the back, and on a desk it would slide around so I couldn't really bury my head in it properly. Oh man, there was this one game....V-force...or vector something....? You were some sort of space ship flying through a long corridor filled with bad guys. I don't know, it was great. Now I'm thinking of dusting that bad boy off and firing it up.
PS I'm 26 and still have 20/20 vision for the time being. I may've dodged a bullet on that one.
PS I'm 26 and still have 20/20 vision for the time being. I may've dodged a bullet on that one.
I gotta say that's probably the nicest thing anybody from Nintendo will say about the thing, given how they treated the guy who made it.
That said, the health problems inherent in its use probably don't really make up for it being misunderstood.
That said, the health problems inherent in its use probably don't really make up for it being misunderstood.
I respect Miyamoto, but in this he's just kinda wrong.
The Virtual Boy was not misunderstood, it was a failure. It's a shame that it lead to the shoveling of a brilliantly talented man's career, but the thing was just a horrid piece of game technology.
The Virtual Boy was not misunderstood, it was a failure. It's a shame that it lead to the shoveling of a brilliantly talented man's career, but the thing was just a horrid piece of game technology.
Well, Miyamoto, I loved MY Virtual Boy, and still would if those darn screens hadn't went belly up on me. Of course, I'm also this guy . . . 
Did you read the article? Myamoto thought it was a marketing failure to call it the virtual boy, precisely because it implied a connection to the game boy when it really shouldn't be seen as having anything to do with one.GiantRedButton said:
Regardless, I have no idea if what he's saying can be considered valid...
It certainly has all the hallmarks of a game console, so trying to argue that it isn't one is a little strange.
Absolutely not but saying "it's ahead of its time" makes it sound like a victim of circumstance instead of awful design.John Funk said:
I don't much care for the Wii grade motion gimmick games but come 5 to 10 years when we have the technology to make games where waving the controller simulates more than just a button press I'll probably be happy to have motion gaming... and still think the Wii should have been relegated to a bad prototype.
Much like the Edsel paved the way for NASCAR. Because no one else thought of 3D entertainment in between the Virtual Boy and the 3DS, it was only those stalwart rebels of Nintendo that kept the 3D flame alive.Tom Goldman said:
Did that lose something in translation or did he just say that it wasn't a game console it was a toy, and that game consoles are not in any way toys or things to play with? This despite any attempt at a serious, adult video game being mocked or demonized by the mainstream since "games are for kids"?!Tom Goldman said:
(Particularly since back then there were virtually no adults who had been lifelong gamers.)
Yeah, I can't wait until the 50,000th Monopoly set is sold, then that game will have really made it. (Seriously? Every year's fad Christmas toy OBLITERATED the 50,000 mark before December even started. When I think of a run of 50,000 toys I think of dollar store stuff. A toy line that you still remember the next year has sales in the millions.)Tom Goldman said:
Let's see. If we take Wikipedia as gospel, the NES sold about 60 million units. The Rubik's Cube has sold 350 million cubes. Okay, so that means the most iconic toy out there is about five times more successful than the most iconic console, but the toy never obsoletes. 350/30 years of production = 11.7 million cubes per year. 60/10 years of production = 6 million NESes per year. So twice as popular.
And what about ones you know but perhaps aren't quite as iconic. Mega Drive/Sega Genesis vs the Care Bears. 29 million consoles vs 40 million stuffed bears.
Still not seeing the massive disparity here.
You know what? Let's think of it as a jet plane. There's only been about 1500 Boeing 747s built. Therefore, the Virtual Boy the best selling jet plane of all time.Tom Goldman said:
So it's someone else's fault that the wrong people bought it, and their fault they did buy it. Okay, sure. Not your fault, everyone else's. Gotcha.Tom Goldman said:
It's funny how most people have never used one and just repeat the stuff about eye strain and headaches over and over. I guess some people must've had those issues with them, but I actually had one (still do in a box somewhere), and neither I nor anyone I know who tried mine ever had those problems with it. It had other problems, like being really awkward to use if you didn't have a chair and table the exact right height for it to line up comfortably with your face, but once we got that sorted out it seemed fine. It cost too much, it didn't have many games, it was difficult to store or transport, and you looked goddamn ridiculous using it, but the handful of games on it that were good were surprisingly fun.
Yes, actually, and so was my friend, and so were both of our girlfriends. Or at least we all were before Nintendo apparently abandoned it in favor of Wii Party, which looks awful. Yeah, they're all just collections of silly minigames, but at least they were generally up to Nintendo's standards instead of most of the criminally bad shovelware imitations out there, and they're nice to have around as something you can just pick up and play even when people who don't usually play games are visiting.Scrythe said:
He is right though. The Virtual Boy was a very neat device that was fun to play. THere were no headaches or anything for me...just fun.
It is a very misunderstood Nintendo. It only bombed because too many whiners and closed-minded people complained about mediocre issues that may or may not have been true.
It is a very misunderstood Nintendo. It only bombed because too many whiners and closed-minded people complained about mediocre issues that may or may not have been true.
How does the fact that he admits it was a mistake make it any less of a reason for its failure?CrystalShadow said:
Everyone who saw it judged it by it's qualities as a follow up to the game boy, and it wasn't even portable, though it tried with the batteries etc to fit that niche.
So nobody bought it which led to its failure.
Yeah i'm aware that Miamota agrees with me on this.
It's not about the fact he admits it's a mistake. What CrystalShadow is saying is that it's not a Game Boy successor to begin with, so it shouldn't be deemed a failure as a successor to the Game Boy any more than we'd say that the GameCube fails as a Game Boy successor. That's what the article said as well, not so much that Miyamoto thought the machine was a mistake, but that naming it "Virtual Boy" was a mistake.GiantRedButton said:
P.S. Thanks