The Miyamoto interview
By STEVE TILLEY, EDMONTON SUN
Sun, May 29, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- Sitting down to talk about video games with Shigeru Miyamoto is the equivalent of chatting about movies with Steven Spielberg, or shooting the breeze about human anatomy and flying machines with a fella named Leonardo Da Vinci.
While his business card identifies him as the general manager of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development division, Miyamoto is in many ways the soul and conscience of Nintendo, and has been with the company since the coin-op heydays of Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong, both of which were games he created.
Since then he's been responsible for everything from the quirky strategy game Pikmin to pretty much every iteration of the Legend of Zelda series, including the upcoming (and much-anticipated) GameCube title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, one of the most talked-about games shown at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
This is the third year in a row I've had the pleasure of sitting down for a one-on-one chat with Miyamoto-san away from the sonic assault of the E3 show floor, and it's always a fascinating experience. His command of English is strong enough that only rarely does he need questions to be translated, but he almost always prefers to answer in Japanese, perhaps feeling that nuances of meaning might get lost if he attempts to tackle his responses in another tongue.
He also frequently, and with almost impish glee, will sidetrack an interview to show off some fun new piece of technology or a new game. Not because he wants coverage for a new product or to dodge a tough question, but simply because he feels it's something so interesting or cool that he wants to share it with you and see your reaction. This year we quizzed Miyamoto on what makes the upcoming Nintendo Revolution game console so revolutionary, why we need yet another flavour of Game Boy Advance and how Nintendo suddenly became interested in online gaming, years after their competitors blazed trails in that arena. This is a full transcript of our chat, which was ably assisted by a Nintendo translator.
WHAM! Gaming: You only revealed a little bit about Revolution at your E3 press conference. Are you waiting until next year to really talk about what the machine is all about?
Shigeru Miyamoto: It's a trade show, and being a trade show we want to focus on what we're doing this year, we want attention on this year's business. However, that being said, we can't not say anything. We want to tell a little bit, so we went and looked at the information and said, 'Well, we can tell them this much.' We don't want to give away too much because other companies out there tend to take that information and run with it, of course. And while it was a small amount of info, we thought it was good info and we were pretty happy with what we were able to tell people. While the Revolution is something we're doing next year, it's going to have all the cutting edge technology, it's going to have a lot of power to it. It's not this big monster machine. What we're trying to use that technology for is to make it a machine that is family-friendly, easily accessible by people of all ages and all experiences. Quiet, small, simple... that's where we're trying to take that technology.
WHAM!:You could say the same things about the GameCube -- it's small, quiet, and family-friendly. But we know there's something about the Revolution that's very unusual. Can you give us a hint at what it might be?
SM: The interface is everything. That being said, I can't tell you anything about it. Unfortunately, in the past when we've announced things, those ideas have been taken and run with by other companies, and if we told people too much about what our interface was going to be like or too many things about the Revolution, I think there's definitely a chance that a lot of ideas would be taken and would be released before we're even ready to release our own product. That being said, we can tell you it's wireless. We created the Wavebird, we had the first (first-party) wireless controllers, and again we're focused on using the hardware to create software that other companies cannot duplicate. So that's our big thing, we're going to take what we have and optimize it so we can create software that no one else can give you. And I apologize for not being able to tell you more.
WHAM!:You said that Revolution is not going to be a "monster" machine, and yet Sony and Microsoft seem very focused on making their next-gen machines as powerful as possible. Do you think their philosophy is taking them too far away from gaming? Or are they just doing their own thing, and Nintendo is doing its own thing?
SM: Nintendo is about entertainment, and we're looking at trying to get users from five to 95. The price (of a console) comes into question, the usability of the system comes into question, and we are about all-access gaming. The Nintendo DS for example, I don't think what the DS can do is being realized in the North American market. However with DS, I think you're going to see a lot of, 'Oh my goodness, it can do this, it can do that, it can do this other thing as well.' And with the products that we're going to be bringing out for it, that is going to be more apparent, and people will begin to appreciate exactly what we're doing with the DS.
Going back to the Revolution, the other companies are focusing, as you said, on taking the existing systems and just trying to make them prettier or faster or bigger. Nintendo is very obviously doing something different with our technology. And that's the tack we're taking on the whole technology discussion.
Have you had a chance to look at this yet? (Miyamoto removes a Game Boy Micro hanging around his neck and points a slim device called Play-Yan slotted into its cartridge bay, containing a large-capacity SD memory card.) It's a movie and music player. It's a little more convenient than an iPod Shuffle. This is something that's sold on the Internet in Japan. (He hands me a pair of headphones and lets me watch the trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess playing on the device's bright, two-inch screen.)
WHAM!:Will this be available in North America?
SM: It hasn't been decided yet. Right now you can purchase it on the Internet in Japan.
WHAM!:How does it feel now that you're so close to finishing Twilight Princess? Is it sad, or is it more of a feeling of relief?
SM: You say we're close to the end, but it's such a big game, we've got so much work. But it will be out this year.
WHAM!:Let's talk about the Game Boy Micro. This is the fourth machine we've seen that can play Game Boy Advance games, if you count the DS, and the third version of the Game Boy Advance. What role is this going to fill that the Game Boy Advance SP does not?
SM: With the Micro, you can use the Play-Yan movie and music player, and it's nice because the Micro has a longer battery life. Obviously it's a bit smaller, some people think the GBA SP is too big. It's a little more style-conscious, a little more image-conscious, maybe adults would like the idea of it, and you can change the faceplates and whatnot. So it fills that niche of being a little smaller, a little more portable and has better battery life than the DS does.
WHAM!:Some people were expecting word on a true successor to the Game Boy at the show this year. We're assuming such a thing in the works? Is there anything you can tell us about it?
SM: We're still concentrating most of our efforts on the DS so we really haven't gone into creating the next generation of Game Boy Advance. We've got the Micro, we've got the SP and we're really focusing our efforts on the DS to fully realize its potential.
WHAM!:We're seeing some pretty amazing things coming out of the Nintendo DS right now -- voice over IP, online multiplayer gaming, and especially Nintendogs. Are you surprised by how popular Nintendogs has become?
SM: Within not even a month there were 400,000 units sold. A full one-third of those are people who are buying a DS with that software, people who haven't bought a game in a while or haven't bought any hardware at all. We're seeing a large number of those consumers, and within that demographic there are a large number of working women, older women, homemakers -- that demographic has really increased with this title.
And it's being covered not just by gaming magazines but other magazines. It's garnering a lot of press.
I was talking with some of the people from (esteemed Japanese gaming magazine) Famistu and according to them, there are people who have never purchased Famitsu before who are purchasing the magazine to get information on Nintendogs.
WHAM!:We're hearing a lot this year about how the industry needs to branch out and draw in people who are not gamers and have never played a game before. I can see a person who has never played a video game before buying Nintendogs. But how do you follow up on that and keep these people interested in gaming?
SM: For us, I think it's a mistake to say, 'What kinds of games do you like? OK, that's what kind of games we're going to make.' That's not the process. We think, 'What do people enjoy? What are things people are interested in?' And we use that as the basis for creating software. It's maybe a different technique, but that's how we think software should be made.
(To illustrate this point, Miyamoto fires up his Nintendo DS and beckons me over to see what he's got.) This is the brain-muscle exerciser game we mentioned during the press conference. You have math problems where you need to write in your answers, you have to read things into the microphone... this is a way for you to check your brain's age. (Miyamoto has me play an exercise where the name of a colour is displayed, and I have to read out the colour of the text the word is written in, rather than reading the name of the colour itself. It's confusing as heck for my simple mind, and not helped by the fact the game sometimes has trouble understanding what word I'm saying. By the end of this little debacle, the game has decided by brain is 80 years old.)
My parents for years have been asking me to make games that they can play. They're in their late 70s. This title comes out on June 19th in Japan and they're saying, 'We want this.' This title really expands the definition of the word video game. What we really want to do and what we really hope to do with Revolution is continue to expand that definition of what a game is, continue to expand the market.
WHAM!:The GameCube is the only console this generation that has virtually ignored online gaming. You said before that online gaming wasn't important enough, or that we weren't ready for it. Now with both the DS and the Revolution, online gaming is apparently becoming an important part of the strategy. What has changed?
SM: Nintendo has always had the technology, and we've always thought the online opportunity was very important, and maybe we've just misspoken ourselves in the past. We've been pretty consistent is saying it's not good business for us, and one thing we might have done incorrectly is in talking to the consumer as if we were talking to business partners. The only thing that has really changed for us is now we finally see the business plan is now viable. So that has really been the impetus behind our moves to going into this market.
WHAM!:Arigato gozaimashita, thank you very much for your time!
http://wham.canoe.ca/gcn/2005/05/27/1059582.html
By STEVE TILLEY, EDMONTON SUN
Sun, May 29, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- Sitting down to talk about video games with Shigeru Miyamoto is the equivalent of chatting about movies with Steven Spielberg, or shooting the breeze about human anatomy and flying machines with a fella named Leonardo Da Vinci.
While his business card identifies him as the general manager of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development division, Miyamoto is in many ways the soul and conscience of Nintendo, and has been with the company since the coin-op heydays of Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong, both of which were games he created.
Since then he's been responsible for everything from the quirky strategy game Pikmin to pretty much every iteration of the Legend of Zelda series, including the upcoming (and much-anticipated) GameCube title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, one of the most talked-about games shown at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
This is the third year in a row I've had the pleasure of sitting down for a one-on-one chat with Miyamoto-san away from the sonic assault of the E3 show floor, and it's always a fascinating experience. His command of English is strong enough that only rarely does he need questions to be translated, but he almost always prefers to answer in Japanese, perhaps feeling that nuances of meaning might get lost if he attempts to tackle his responses in another tongue.
He also frequently, and with almost impish glee, will sidetrack an interview to show off some fun new piece of technology or a new game. Not because he wants coverage for a new product or to dodge a tough question, but simply because he feels it's something so interesting or cool that he wants to share it with you and see your reaction. This year we quizzed Miyamoto on what makes the upcoming Nintendo Revolution game console so revolutionary, why we need yet another flavour of Game Boy Advance and how Nintendo suddenly became interested in online gaming, years after their competitors blazed trails in that arena. This is a full transcript of our chat, which was ably assisted by a Nintendo translator.
WHAM! Gaming: You only revealed a little bit about Revolution at your E3 press conference. Are you waiting until next year to really talk about what the machine is all about?
Shigeru Miyamoto: It's a trade show, and being a trade show we want to focus on what we're doing this year, we want attention on this year's business. However, that being said, we can't not say anything. We want to tell a little bit, so we went and looked at the information and said, 'Well, we can tell them this much.' We don't want to give away too much because other companies out there tend to take that information and run with it, of course. And while it was a small amount of info, we thought it was good info and we were pretty happy with what we were able to tell people. While the Revolution is something we're doing next year, it's going to have all the cutting edge technology, it's going to have a lot of power to it. It's not this big monster machine. What we're trying to use that technology for is to make it a machine that is family-friendly, easily accessible by people of all ages and all experiences. Quiet, small, simple... that's where we're trying to take that technology.
WHAM!:You could say the same things about the GameCube -- it's small, quiet, and family-friendly. But we know there's something about the Revolution that's very unusual. Can you give us a hint at what it might be?
SM: The interface is everything. That being said, I can't tell you anything about it. Unfortunately, in the past when we've announced things, those ideas have been taken and run with by other companies, and if we told people too much about what our interface was going to be like or too many things about the Revolution, I think there's definitely a chance that a lot of ideas would be taken and would be released before we're even ready to release our own product. That being said, we can tell you it's wireless. We created the Wavebird, we had the first (first-party) wireless controllers, and again we're focused on using the hardware to create software that other companies cannot duplicate. So that's our big thing, we're going to take what we have and optimize it so we can create software that no one else can give you. And I apologize for not being able to tell you more.
WHAM!:You said that Revolution is not going to be a "monster" machine, and yet Sony and Microsoft seem very focused on making their next-gen machines as powerful as possible. Do you think their philosophy is taking them too far away from gaming? Or are they just doing their own thing, and Nintendo is doing its own thing?
SM: Nintendo is about entertainment, and we're looking at trying to get users from five to 95. The price (of a console) comes into question, the usability of the system comes into question, and we are about all-access gaming. The Nintendo DS for example, I don't think what the DS can do is being realized in the North American market. However with DS, I think you're going to see a lot of, 'Oh my goodness, it can do this, it can do that, it can do this other thing as well.' And with the products that we're going to be bringing out for it, that is going to be more apparent, and people will begin to appreciate exactly what we're doing with the DS.
Going back to the Revolution, the other companies are focusing, as you said, on taking the existing systems and just trying to make them prettier or faster or bigger. Nintendo is very obviously doing something different with our technology. And that's the tack we're taking on the whole technology discussion.
Have you had a chance to look at this yet? (Miyamoto removes a Game Boy Micro hanging around his neck and points a slim device called Play-Yan slotted into its cartridge bay, containing a large-capacity SD memory card.) It's a movie and music player. It's a little more convenient than an iPod Shuffle. This is something that's sold on the Internet in Japan. (He hands me a pair of headphones and lets me watch the trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess playing on the device's bright, two-inch screen.)
WHAM!:Will this be available in North America?
SM: It hasn't been decided yet. Right now you can purchase it on the Internet in Japan.
WHAM!:How does it feel now that you're so close to finishing Twilight Princess? Is it sad, or is it more of a feeling of relief?
SM: You say we're close to the end, but it's such a big game, we've got so much work. But it will be out this year.
WHAM!:Let's talk about the Game Boy Micro. This is the fourth machine we've seen that can play Game Boy Advance games, if you count the DS, and the third version of the Game Boy Advance. What role is this going to fill that the Game Boy Advance SP does not?
SM: With the Micro, you can use the Play-Yan movie and music player, and it's nice because the Micro has a longer battery life. Obviously it's a bit smaller, some people think the GBA SP is too big. It's a little more style-conscious, a little more image-conscious, maybe adults would like the idea of it, and you can change the faceplates and whatnot. So it fills that niche of being a little smaller, a little more portable and has better battery life than the DS does.
WHAM!:Some people were expecting word on a true successor to the Game Boy at the show this year. We're assuming such a thing in the works? Is there anything you can tell us about it?
SM: We're still concentrating most of our efforts on the DS so we really haven't gone into creating the next generation of Game Boy Advance. We've got the Micro, we've got the SP and we're really focusing our efforts on the DS to fully realize its potential.
WHAM!:We're seeing some pretty amazing things coming out of the Nintendo DS right now -- voice over IP, online multiplayer gaming, and especially Nintendogs. Are you surprised by how popular Nintendogs has become?
SM: Within not even a month there were 400,000 units sold. A full one-third of those are people who are buying a DS with that software, people who haven't bought a game in a while or haven't bought any hardware at all. We're seeing a large number of those consumers, and within that demographic there are a large number of working women, older women, homemakers -- that demographic has really increased with this title.
And it's being covered not just by gaming magazines but other magazines. It's garnering a lot of press.
I was talking with some of the people from (esteemed Japanese gaming magazine) Famistu and according to them, there are people who have never purchased Famitsu before who are purchasing the magazine to get information on Nintendogs.
WHAM!:We're hearing a lot this year about how the industry needs to branch out and draw in people who are not gamers and have never played a game before. I can see a person who has never played a video game before buying Nintendogs. But how do you follow up on that and keep these people interested in gaming?
SM: For us, I think it's a mistake to say, 'What kinds of games do you like? OK, that's what kind of games we're going to make.' That's not the process. We think, 'What do people enjoy? What are things people are interested in?' And we use that as the basis for creating software. It's maybe a different technique, but that's how we think software should be made.
(To illustrate this point, Miyamoto fires up his Nintendo DS and beckons me over to see what he's got.) This is the brain-muscle exerciser game we mentioned during the press conference. You have math problems where you need to write in your answers, you have to read things into the microphone... this is a way for you to check your brain's age. (Miyamoto has me play an exercise where the name of a colour is displayed, and I have to read out the colour of the text the word is written in, rather than reading the name of the colour itself. It's confusing as heck for my simple mind, and not helped by the fact the game sometimes has trouble understanding what word I'm saying. By the end of this little debacle, the game has decided by brain is 80 years old.)
My parents for years have been asking me to make games that they can play. They're in their late 70s. This title comes out on June 19th in Japan and they're saying, 'We want this.' This title really expands the definition of the word video game. What we really want to do and what we really hope to do with Revolution is continue to expand that definition of what a game is, continue to expand the market.
WHAM!:The GameCube is the only console this generation that has virtually ignored online gaming. You said before that online gaming wasn't important enough, or that we weren't ready for it. Now with both the DS and the Revolution, online gaming is apparently becoming an important part of the strategy. What has changed?
SM: Nintendo has always had the technology, and we've always thought the online opportunity was very important, and maybe we've just misspoken ourselves in the past. We've been pretty consistent is saying it's not good business for us, and one thing we might have done incorrectly is in talking to the consumer as if we were talking to business partners. The only thing that has really changed for us is now we finally see the business plan is now viable. So that has really been the impetus behind our moves to going into this market.
WHAM!:Arigato gozaimashita, thank you very much for your time!
http://wham.canoe.ca/gcn/2005/05/27/1059582.html
