Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Shigeru Miyamoto presented a reflective more than visionary speech during his time in the spotlight at the Game Developers Conference. A packed house wanted to know more about the Nintendo Wii's future; instead they got a history lesson.
Miyamoto is the legendary designer of some of video gamings most enduring and important games and characters. During his keynote speech to a packed and eager room, Miyamoto reflected on his times designing and playing games such as Donkey Kong and Mario.
He also spoke of the 'gamer image' - mentioning that in 1998 the top selling games were Goldeneye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gran Turismo, Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64. Fast-forward to 2005 and we see the top games were predominantly similar to each other or sequels. Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas, Madden NFL 2005, Halo 2 in two varieties and ESPN NFL 2K5.
His vision for Nintendo was to be different from the crowd - expanding the audience and breaking away from the sequel/sameness of others, hence the public was presented with the Wii and games such as Wii Sports.
The Wife-o-meter was then introduced, with Miyamoto using it to describe the interest his spouse had in his work, noting that over several years, the Wife-o-meter had responded favourably to games such as Nintendogs, Brain Age and the "Everybody Votes" Wii channel.
Why can't the Wife-o-meter itself be developed as a game?
The speech itself was more about Shigeru Miyamoto being nostalgic about the industry and his company's part in that industry. Miyamoto shared his approach to game design, how he imagines an idea, and how a first-time gamer might approach and experience the end design. "A happy player's face is a good match for Nintendo," said Miyamoto.
Those in the audience looking for announcements on future Nintendo directions were in the wrong place. The most obvious pieces of information in this regard were hints of a new Wii channel where Mii's can be entered into a popularity competition worldwide.
There was also further footage on Super Mario Galaxy, which is due later this year. For the least powerful of the consoles in this current generation, this game is certainly one that looks an absolute treat. The little plumber has never looked so fantastic as when he takes himself outside of Earths atmosphere.
On the surface, there were not many future announcements to be had in this Keynote, but if you take the entirety of the speech in context, you realise that Nintendo are holding true to their "everybody plays" vision, and the public have voted this as a winner with their wallets.
This was summed up at the end, with Miyamoto stating, "After all, if we can convert my wife, I believe we can convert anyone."
David Bass
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