Jubenhimer
Member
The late Satoru Iwata, former President of Nintendo from 2002 till his passing in 2015, is one of the most missed and beloved figures in gaming.
While he has achieved many great things in the industry, his speech from Nintendo's 2005 GDC conference particularly interesting to me, specifically at this part.
Here, Iwata mentioned that going into the HD era of the seventh generation, game budgets would vastly increase, and that if the industry focuses on just bigger, better, faster, stronger alone every generation, then that could lead to stagnation and user retention. Instead, Iwata emphasized the importance of new technology creating new experiences and ideas, as well as better graphics.
Iwata used several examples of how Nintendo hoped to prove this, particularly with the recently released Nintendo DS. Games such as Nintendogs, Electroplankton, and Mario Kart DS were all shown to demonstrate to devs how Nintendo's newly minted platform can foster an environment where ideas, not budgets can thrive.
Fast forward 20 years since that speech, Iwata's point on growth without purpose rings more true than ever. AAA game budgets have skyrocketed to rediculous levels, resulting in bloated, overpriced games that don't even work properly half the time upon release. Game spending among Gen Z has dropped very sharply this past year, resulting in more younger gamers playing retro games. An over-reliance on remasters and remakes of past games for "modern audiences" has grown tremendously. And in recent years, I feel like even Nintendo themselves has fallen for much of the same industry jargon and hype that Iwata warned against (Mario Kart World being the biggest example).
That said, there have been some good changes since Iwata's speech. The diminishing returns on graphics and CPU leaps each generation means better and faster hardware is less important these days. And the rise of cheap toolchains and engines, allows for smaller devs to compete with, or even surpass AAA, see Hollow Night Silksong as a recent example.
Still, it is fascinating how much of the modern gaming industry Iwata foreshadowed.
While he has achieved many great things in the industry, his speech from Nintendo's 2005 GDC conference particularly interesting to me, specifically at this part.
Here, Iwata mentioned that going into the HD era of the seventh generation, game budgets would vastly increase, and that if the industry focuses on just bigger, better, faster, stronger alone every generation, then that could lead to stagnation and user retention. Instead, Iwata emphasized the importance of new technology creating new experiences and ideas, as well as better graphics.
Iwata used several examples of how Nintendo hoped to prove this, particularly with the recently released Nintendo DS. Games such as Nintendogs, Electroplankton, and Mario Kart DS were all shown to demonstrate to devs how Nintendo's newly minted platform can foster an environment where ideas, not budgets can thrive.
Fast forward 20 years since that speech, Iwata's point on growth without purpose rings more true than ever. AAA game budgets have skyrocketed to rediculous levels, resulting in bloated, overpriced games that don't even work properly half the time upon release. Game spending among Gen Z has dropped very sharply this past year, resulting in more younger gamers playing retro games. An over-reliance on remasters and remakes of past games for "modern audiences" has grown tremendously. And in recent years, I feel like even Nintendo themselves has fallen for much of the same industry jargon and hype that Iwata warned against (Mario Kart World being the biggest example).
That said, there have been some good changes since Iwata's speech. The diminishing returns on graphics and CPU leaps each generation means better and faster hardware is less important these days. And the rise of cheap toolchains and engines, allows for smaller devs to compete with, or even surpass AAA, see Hollow Night Silksong as a recent example.
Still, it is fascinating how much of the modern gaming industry Iwata foreshadowed.
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