Miyamoto; We wanted to make 'something Mom won't hate'

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 03 February 2008 09:14

Your IT - Entertainment

Nintendo GM Shigeru Miyamoto sat down for an interview in Japanese Weekly magazine Famitsu's celebratory 1,000th     issue, he discussed the past, and a little about the Nintendo gaming future.

This translation taken from the 1up article . As part of Famitsu Weekly's 1,000th issue, Miyamoto game some insight into the thinking behind the development of the Wii console out of the ashes of the GameCube.

A lot of discussion is unsurprisingly around the controller, when queried about memorable products in Nintendo's past, the designer paused for effect and then "It's not a game, but maybe the GameCube's controller. We made it as a culmination of everything leading up to it, but it really underwhelmed. 'This line of thinking doesn't give us anything else to shoot for, does it?' That's how I felt."

Miyamoto added ; ”The GameCube controller is a product of us feeling that, without this or that, people wouldn't be able to play the games we make. But then we realized that was a problem, that we were thinking based on that controller as the premise." - this of course led to the conceptualisation of the Wii-mote and its intuitive nature.

Miyamoto goes on in the interview to explain the thoughts behind the hand-held DS: "The first was 'something Mom won't hate.' It had always been that if your mom caught you playing Mario she would frown, but if she walked in while you were watching a Disney movie she'd be all smiles. Both give kids something to dream about, if you ask me." The only way to rectify the situation was to get Mom to understand the system and actually try it. "The other theme was 'making it so you could bring the system to school.' Why can't a game system help out at school, right?" If the DS could fill the role of existing classroom materials like flash cards, maybe the world would change. "I wanted to make titles like [the Japanese/kanji dictionary released only in Japan] even if they didn't sell. If we could succeed in getting them out there and take that next step, people might be able to take their DS's out into public or to school."

The interviewer asked Miyamoto to comment on the success of the Wii Fit balance board, currently slaying sales records in Japan; "If it continues to gain popularity overseas, that's something I look forward to, since it means more Wii Balance Board titles might come out."

Finally, Miyamoto was asked a little about his future vision for the company, including some of his beloved characters from popular game franchises.  Specifically Miyamoto sees mobile gaming as a continuing trend; "Once people can use it in a wide range of public places, we could probably set up servers and create a good environment that links together play at home and play on the go-then work game technology into that." He later adds, "When you take your DS out on the town, you'll be able to do all kinds of fun things with it in public spaces. This year we plan to challenge ourselves with that kind of system."

And Zelda and Mario, with a laugh Miyamoto concluded “Don't worry, more Mario, Zelda, and lots more surprises are on the way. I'm making 'em all,"