Dante Posted March 19, 2007 Posted March 19, 2007 Shigeru Miyamoto Interview with A+E Interactive Shigeru Miyamoto started late and gave a long speech at the Game Developers Conference. Afterward, I got to go back stage to the Green Room. There, without any imperial robes, was the King. Miyamoto gave me an interview. There was a constantly flushing toilet making noise in the background. The PR folks worried it was too loud. I was thinking of a cretain plumber. I asked my questions in English. Miyamoto understood them, but he spoke back in Japanese. Bill Trinen translated for us. Here’s the transcript. Q: There were similar things between your speech and Phil Harrison’s speech. He brought up the Time Magazine “Person of the Year” article where “you” will become the center of entertainment. Are you in agreement with Sony about social networking? A: I didn’t attend Sony’s keynote speech. Q: Your excitement over the “Miis” and the players creating the Miis makes me wonder if you agree that the larger trend of social networking is important to entertainment? A: I don’t really look at it in those terms. What they’re doing already exists in one form on the PC. Our focus is always to be different and do something that’s different. That’s why, even though, technically speaking, the Miis take advantage of the Internet, that isn’t our main focus. So we don’t really talk about the ways they’re talking about the Internet. We are trying to do something that is different and create something that hasn’t been there before. Q: Are you expecting users to create their own games? Is this where it will lead? A: Today, we talked about how it took us 20 years to bring the Miis to fruition. And all the different experiments that went into that. Over time, we’ve looked at all sorts of things, including game editors and game creators. Those types of things. If you look at the challenges that we had in the Miis in the way that they were able to break through, the real question for a game editor is where are you going to find that breaking point in a way it does break through and go to the mass market. It’s hard to say when that is going to happen or what shape that is going to take. So really what the deciding factor is what the ultimate game editor that those people are creating ends up being. It’s not simply the question of whether there is a game editor. It is what form does that editor take. Q: If you have a hard time getting approval for making games, that can be very discouraging for game developers who have no reputation for making games. The people who are brand new at making games may say that if you have a hard time making games, there is no hope for me. A: Do you really think people will take it that way? Q: I don’t know. A: What I think is important is for people to hold on to those ideas for as long as necessary because at some point, you will encounter the opportunity to bring them to fruition. Sometimes those opportunities may come in the form of technology or what is going on in the world to allow those ideas to finally be realized. Q: A lot of people questioned whether the Wii would take off or not. Nobody really knew. It has taken off. Now the question is how long does it last? Will people really stay excited about the Wii. What about it tells you they will stay excited? A: It depends on the software we create to make it appealing. Originally, people said Wii Sports was a fun game but it was simple. People would lose interest in it very quickly. We are finding people are still playing it. It is a question of how long it will hold their attention. Another option for us is, instead of having single player games where people lose interest in them, having the Wii become a tool in the household. Every time people get together in the home, people bring out the Wii to entertain themselves. That’s one way to try to sustain the momentum the Wii has gained. To turn it into that tool. But that of course depends on the software that we create. So of course one main point that has been there for us is having this idea of having a system that is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. So that it’s always there. It becomes a device you turn on and interact with every single day. It’s a product you turn on as naturally as you do your TV. To interact with and see what kind of entertainment is waiting for you there. Making it part of your every day life. One project we are working on is what we call “health packs” or “Wii fit.” It’s still a project name. But it’s health or exercise-based software. Q: How will developers get better at making Wii games? What will the second batch of games be like? A: It depends on who is creating the games. Now we are seeing the possibilities open up. A lot of third-party developers are coming on board and looking at the possibilities of the Wii. We are seeing a large variety of games being developed. With that wide variety, you are going to see games for the Wii that offer new and unique kinds of entertainment. As the numbers increase, we are going to see new and exciting software. Q: Are there characteristics to what you would call an epic Wii game? Zelda is one, but are there more? A: We don’t really think of it in those terms. We look at it game by game. We released Zelda. In Japan we released Fire Emblem, which is a larger scale game. We do have teams working on those games but we are not focused on needing to compete with the other hardware vendors on an epic scale. Our focus is on new and unique ideas that can only be done on the Wii itself. A good example of this is Dragon Quest. We announced the next full installment of that game is coming on the Nintendo DS. They could have made the decision to make that game on the PS2 or they could have made it on the PSP. But when they looked at the unique features of the Nintendo DS and looked at the sell-through of the DS hardware, it was very easy for them to take that game, implement unique functionality, and create a game that is more interesting on the DS. That’s our same objective with the Wii. We want to provide developers with the opportunity to create these new and unique ideas and put them on a console that is only possible to put them on.
Emasher Posted March 19, 2007 Posted March 19, 2007 i'd love to see if they actually create a "game making thingy"
Gaijin von Snikbah Posted March 19, 2007 Posted March 19, 2007 Im sure they are experimenting on a game maker. The question is wether they can come up with ideas good enough to warrant a release. These types of games could, if done the right way, become very popular. Kinda like The Sims.
christophicus Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I dont really like the idea of a game maker. They are always going to be very limiting. Haveing said that RPG maker was quite good, but trying to make a 3d general purpose game maker I think will be quite bad.
flameboy Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I'd have to agree with the game making idea, with people saying how great Little Big Planet is going to be and also how it is almost akin to a Nintendo product, I think we will see something very similar from Nintendo using Mii's. also hopefully something that will encompass a social gaming idea as well.
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