6/15/2005
The Man Who Keeps Nintendo Cool
By Chris Kohler
02:00 AM Jun. 15, 2005 PT
Shigeru Miyamoto can't stop thinking up video games.
You'd think the renowned creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda would want to take a break. But as the head of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division, Miyamoto devotes seemingly all his waking hours (and probably most of his dreams) to creating new interactive entertainment.
02:00 AM Jun. 15, 2005 PT
Shigeru Miyamoto can't stop thinking up video games.
You'd think the renowned creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda would want to take a break. But as the head of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division, Miyamoto devotes seemingly all his waking hours (and probably most of his dreams) to creating new interactive entertainment.
At this year's E3 video-game conference, you could see Miyamoto's stamp everywhere, from brand new games like the puppy simulator Nintendogs to highly anticipated sequels like New Super Mario Bros. -- the latest entry in a franchise that has sold an unprecedented 182 million units worldwide to date.
Miyamoto's days at E3 are packed solid; he meets with developers, chats with reporters and occasionally fulfills the lifelong dream of a terminally ill child courtesy of the Make-A-Wish foundation. But he remains cheerful throughout each session, gleeful when he demonstrates a piece of Nintendo DS software about to be released in Japan, a game with brain teasers and math drills meant to stimulate the adult mind. These are the sort of offbeat games that Nintendo is counting on to jump-start a flailing video-game industry in Japan.
Wired News spoke to Miyamoto off the crowded E3 show floor in Los Angeles last month.
Wired News: The Japanese games industry is in trouble, as sales keep dropping. What is Nintendo doing to get things going again?
Shigeru Miyamoto: I don't really think it's a Japanese problem. I think it's an industrywide and worldwide issue. In fact, I'm surprised how well the U.S. has held up; I think the U.S. is more the exception rather than the rule.
What's happening with video games is the same thing that happens with anything new and interesting. At the beginning, everybody wants to see what it is. They gather around and check it out. But gradually, people start to lose interest.
The people who don't lose interest become more and more involved. And the medium starts to be influenced by only those people. It becomes something exclusive to the people who've stuck with it for a long time. And when the people who were interested in it at first look back at it, it's no longer the thing that interested them.
So obviously, it's very important for us to create brand new things that bring back those people. But it's just as important to create the kind of games that current gamers know they like.
WN: If you look, for example, at Space Invaders or Street Fighter II, those games were amazingly popular. But now, space shooters and fighting games are niche genres.
Miyamoto: One of the things that we're looking at as an answer to this issue are games like Nintendogs. It's sold over 400,000 units to date in Japan, and we think it'll just continue to sell for a long time. A great thing about Nintendogs is that one-third of the purchasers of that title are also buying the Nintendo DS hardware. So it's bringing people back, or even bringing people into video games for the first time.
WN: So why is Nintendogs so appealing to the masses?
Miyamoto: Because rather than trying to follow industry trends, it's based on things that people find appealing in general. Not just what they find appealing in a video game.
Moreover, I think that if companies are challenged financially, or are concerned only with profits, they're going to only create things that are safe, products that are proven to sell. And that's what they're going to continue to crank out.
Nintendo's always been about challenging itself to come up with interesting things. People from outside might say that we make many different games with Mario every year, or a lot of Zelda games. But within those titles are always new and interesting challenges. We have the luxury of being both profitable and creative.
WN: Speaking of which, New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS is a rather ambitious follow-up to a revered series. Who are the team members working on the game?
Miyamoto's days at E3 are packed solid; he meets with developers, chats with reporters and occasionally fulfills the lifelong dream of a terminally ill child courtesy of the Make-A-Wish foundation. But he remains cheerful throughout each session, gleeful when he demonstrates a piece of Nintendo DS software about to be released in Japan, a game with brain teasers and math drills meant to stimulate the adult mind. These are the sort of offbeat games that Nintendo is counting on to jump-start a flailing video-game industry in Japan.
Wired News spoke to Miyamoto off the crowded E3 show floor in Los Angeles last month.
Wired News: The Japanese games industry is in trouble, as sales keep dropping. What is Nintendo doing to get things going again?
Shigeru Miyamoto: I don't really think it's a Japanese problem. I think it's an industrywide and worldwide issue. In fact, I'm surprised how well the U.S. has held up; I think the U.S. is more the exception rather than the rule.
What's happening with video games is the same thing that happens with anything new and interesting. At the beginning, everybody wants to see what it is. They gather around and check it out. But gradually, people start to lose interest.
The people who don't lose interest become more and more involved. And the medium starts to be influenced by only those people. It becomes something exclusive to the people who've stuck with it for a long time. And when the people who were interested in it at first look back at it, it's no longer the thing that interested them.
So obviously, it's very important for us to create brand new things that bring back those people. But it's just as important to create the kind of games that current gamers know they like.
WN: If you look, for example, at Space Invaders or Street Fighter II, those games were amazingly popular. But now, space shooters and fighting games are niche genres.
Miyamoto: One of the things that we're looking at as an answer to this issue are games like Nintendogs. It's sold over 400,000 units to date in Japan, and we think it'll just continue to sell for a long time. A great thing about Nintendogs is that one-third of the purchasers of that title are also buying the Nintendo DS hardware. So it's bringing people back, or even bringing people into video games for the first time.
WN: So why is Nintendogs so appealing to the masses?
Miyamoto: Because rather than trying to follow industry trends, it's based on things that people find appealing in general. Not just what they find appealing in a video game.
Moreover, I think that if companies are challenged financially, or are concerned only with profits, they're going to only create things that are safe, products that are proven to sell. And that's what they're going to continue to crank out.
Nintendo's always been about challenging itself to come up with interesting things. People from outside might say that we make many different games with Mario every year, or a lot of Zelda games. But within those titles are always new and interesting challenges. We have the luxury of being both profitable and creative.
WN: Speaking of which, New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS is a rather ambitious follow-up to a revered series. Who are the team members working on the game?
Miyamoto: (Longtime Mario series lead director Takashi) Tezuka and (Zelda series lead programmer Toshihiko) Nakago are heading up the project, and I jump in from time to time. So it's really close to the original Mario team members.
When Mario went 3-D, there were a lot of new things that Mario could do and that the player could experience. But moving from the side-scrolling game that everybody is used to into a full 3-D environment, the game design process became more difficult.
With the DS we wanted a game that uses cutting-edge technology -- you're using wireless gameplay for two-player simultaneous Mario -- but also has gone back to the roots of the series to be a game that anybody can pick up because it's very familiar. We wanted a Mario game that everybody can be excited to play.
WN: This is the first traditional side-scrolling Mario game Nintendo has made since 1991. Why wait this long to do a new Mario game in the original style?
Miyamoto: Because we'd spent all this time working on 3-D Mario games. And of course, when we had Rare developing the side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country games, we were able to rely on them, which kept us from coming back to side-scrollers for a long time.
WN: But there's still no sign of the long-rumored Mario 128 for GameCube.
Miyamoto: It's still floating around. We're searching for that fundamental idea that's going to drive the next 3-D Mario game. But we're not sure when that's going to jump out at us. We're doing lots of tests with small groups.
WN: If that's the case -- if the design process is still at the point where you're doing experiments and tests -- is it even possible that Mario 128 could come out on GameCube at this point? Or is it definitely a Revolution title?
Miyamoto: We think we want it on Revolution.
WN: So, there will be no new GameCube Mario platform game.
Miyamoto: Right. The Mario team can't create too many games at the same time, so they're concentrating on the Revolution.
WN: At your E3 press conference, Nintendo announced that the Revolution will be able to download and play games from Nintendo's back catalog. Does that mean that the entire library of Nintendo-published games will be available?
Miyamoto: Technologically speaking, it's possible to run every previous Nintendo game. It's just a matter of picking which ones we want to have available.
WN: The Revolution's controller wasn't shown, but there has been a lot of speculation as to what special functionality it will have. Can you tell us about that?
Miyamoto: Nintendo is always trying to be on the forefront of control innovations, like the analog stick, rumble or wireless. As soon as these are available, our competitors snatch them up.
Because the user interface is going to drive the Revolution software design, that's what's going to make our software stand out. Nobody else is going to be able to do what we do with next-generation game software. So, I can't reveal anything. It's under wraps because it's the big gun.
When Mario went 3-D, there were a lot of new things that Mario could do and that the player could experience. But moving from the side-scrolling game that everybody is used to into a full 3-D environment, the game design process became more difficult.
With the DS we wanted a game that uses cutting-edge technology -- you're using wireless gameplay for two-player simultaneous Mario -- but also has gone back to the roots of the series to be a game that anybody can pick up because it's very familiar. We wanted a Mario game that everybody can be excited to play.
WN: This is the first traditional side-scrolling Mario game Nintendo has made since 1991. Why wait this long to do a new Mario game in the original style?
Miyamoto: Because we'd spent all this time working on 3-D Mario games. And of course, when we had Rare developing the side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country games, we were able to rely on them, which kept us from coming back to side-scrollers for a long time.
WN: But there's still no sign of the long-rumored Mario 128 for GameCube.
Miyamoto: It's still floating around. We're searching for that fundamental idea that's going to drive the next 3-D Mario game. But we're not sure when that's going to jump out at us. We're doing lots of tests with small groups.
WN: If that's the case -- if the design process is still at the point where you're doing experiments and tests -- is it even possible that Mario 128 could come out on GameCube at this point? Or is it definitely a Revolution title?
Miyamoto: We think we want it on Revolution.
WN: So, there will be no new GameCube Mario platform game.
Miyamoto: Right. The Mario team can't create too many games at the same time, so they're concentrating on the Revolution.
WN: At your E3 press conference, Nintendo announced that the Revolution will be able to download and play games from Nintendo's back catalog. Does that mean that the entire library of Nintendo-published games will be available?
Miyamoto: Technologically speaking, it's possible to run every previous Nintendo game. It's just a matter of picking which ones we want to have available.
WN: The Revolution's controller wasn't shown, but there has been a lot of speculation as to what special functionality it will have. Can you tell us about that?
Miyamoto: Nintendo is always trying to be on the forefront of control innovations, like the analog stick, rumble or wireless. As soon as these are available, our competitors snatch them up.
Because the user interface is going to drive the Revolution software design, that's what's going to make our software stand out. Nobody else is going to be able to do what we do with next-generation game software. So, I can't reveal anything. It's under wraps because it's the big gun.
