Miyamoto talks again....

[A Black Falcon]

Saw this a day or two ago, but why not post it anyway.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/02/commenta.../index.htm

Nintendo: Innovation is dying
Mario creator Miyamoto discusses what's wrong with the video game industry today
June 3, 2005: 8:11 AM EDT
Game Over is a weekly column by Chris Morris

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – This might come as something of a shock to the gaming world, but Shigeru Miyamoto – the man who created Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda – really doesn't feel like playing games these days.

"There's not a lot I want to play now," he told me recently. "A lot of the games out there are just too long. Of course, there are games, such as 'Halo' or 'Grand Theft Auto,' that are big and expansive. But if you're not interested in spending that time with them, you're not going to play."

What he misses, he said, are games you can pick up and play – something the company hopes to accomplish with its next generation home console, currently code-named "Revolution".

Nintendo deliberately avoided giving too many details about the Revolution at the E3 conference this year, frustrating some fans who felt the company did not fight back against the PR onslaught of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Miyamoto didn't offer any firm details either, though he did offer a few more vague hints about how the system would be different.

"The Revolution will use cutting edge technology, but it's ultimately about how that technology is used," he said. "We asked ourselves 'why would a family need or want to have a gaming console?' The answer is what's driving development of the Revolution."

While Miyamoto insists the Revolution will have advanced graphics and features, he doesn't want that to be the focus of the machine.

Instead, he's trying to encourage developers to think outside of the genres that have become so well known in the industry. In other words, there's more to gaming than role playing, simulation, strategy and action.

"Rather than thinking we have a new console, let's make epic games, I want [developers] to make more unique products," he said.

That's the school of thought behind some of the upcoming games for the Nintendo DS. "Nintendogs," a Tamigachi-like canine simulator lets you experience the joy of raising a pup with none of the house-training. Whether U.S. audiences will embrace it is a mystery, but Japan has gone crazy for the game, buying more than 400,000 copies, according to Nintendo. "ElectroPlankton," meanwhile, blends music and art, letting owners mix their own tunes.

Less likely to make it to Western shores is "Touch Dic". (Really, that's the name.) This dictionary application for the DS is a bit different than standard electronic dictionaries, turning learning a new language into a game. For example, one person, using the DS' stylus, can draw Kanji characters onto their Picto-chat screen while others try to guess their meaning.

There have even been whispers of a PDA application for the DS in the works, though Nintendo declined to comment on that.

Of course, the Revolution and the DS will continue to primarily be game machines. (Nintendo's not straying that far from its roots.) And company president Satoru Iwata has indicated established franchises, such as "Super Smash Bros." and "Metroid" will be ready at or near launch.

How much support Nintendo will get from third-party publishers remains to be seen. Though they used a lot of smoke and mirrors, Sony and Microsoft both turned heads at E3. Nintendo's next-gen device was barely an afterthought for most developers.

If Miyamoto is concerned, though, he didn't show it. He said he wasn't overly impressed with what he saw from Sony (Research) and Microsoft (Research) at the show – particularly in their pre-show press conferences.

"Most of what you're seeing are not even the first projections of games," he said. "They're just shiny computer graphics. They're things anyone using a computer can do. ... It's how we're going to use the technology that separates us. What we want to do is different – and we're happy with the road we're taking. When you have a Revolution, you're not going to have the same experience as you would with the other home consoles."

[EdenMaster]

While Miyamoto insists the Revolution will have advanced graphics and features, he doesn't want that to be the focus of the machine.

*explodes*

It also confuses me how he says games these days are "too long", and then comes back and says he wants to make epic games for the Revolution. Maybe it's just bad translation and he means something like "groundbreaking" or "unique".

Oh, Shiggy. All the spinning you've done for the sake of my avatar has yet to squeeze any answers out of you. You're not coming down from there until I hear more about SSB for the Rev. I mean it! Yeah, well you'll just have to hold it in, then!

[N-Man]

Actually he says let's NOT make epic games.

"Rather than thinking we have a new console, let's make epic games, I want [developers] to make more unique products,"

I actually agree with the man 100%. I've gradually abandoned playing newer games as I've encountered loading times, extensive tutorial and learning levels, boring storyline- or collection-oriented gameplay and unskippable intro/mid-level movies, not to mention the "wait it's not the good part yet" syndrome. A lot of new games are just not fun.

On the other hand, the so-called innovations mentioned in the article don't impress me much. They don't seem to be games so much as they are toys to muck around with. AFAIK Nintendo doesn't make toys, and I hope Shiggy will prove me right. Good, creative games - not necessarily groundbreaking, just creative - that you can pick up and play should be the mainstay of any video game console.

[A Black Falcon]

He has something of a point... not everyone has the time (or intrest) to spend on massive, epic games. But you shouldn't stop making them, that's for sure... some of both is best, I'd say. Now maybe the other companies are going a bit too far the other way, but Nintendo seems to be trying to do the opposite, which ultimately isn't much better... but we'll see. Nintendo does make "epic" games (Zelda? Fire Emblem? Etc.), so Miyamoto's point is a bit muted by the facts...

Oh yeah, and 'pick up and play' was also a goal with the Gamecube, remember? That big A button and all...

[lazyfatbum]

Tutorials in games have always been annoying. In OoT it wasn't all that much a tutorial as it was just easy until you became adult Link. But he brought up Halo specifically which is strange... the only Nintendo-brand first person shooters out there is Metroid Prime and Echoes, and the new Geist franchise. Both are franchises which require tutorial levels, both of which are expansive, epic games.

So the point is...?

Then he makes reference to GTA... as an expansive, epic game. Since when did GTA become an expansive, epic game? :D Most, if not all people who play it do not take part in the missions as the meat of the game. Instead, they use GTA as a quick fix to just run around and kill things or drive off cliffs, in to people, etc.

The GTA type of genre, which I guess can be called Free Roam Games (though Zelda is a free roam game, it should probably be called a Law Breaking Game or "How long until you lose all your morals Game") is the onlt genre really untouched by Nintendo.

There is no Nintendo game where you exist in a giant single city and get to mess around in it using multiple game engines such as driving, flying, 1st person shooting, 3rd person fighting, etc. The only thing that comes close is Zelda.

Nothing is more expansive or epic than a Zelda game.

So again.... wtf is he talking about? He uses Nintendogs and Electroplankton as bases for what types of games Nintendo wants to bring to the table. Getting a neat little game for my handheld sounds like fun. But when I sit down with my $250+ console and $50 game I better get treated to something that's atleast epic and expansive in some way because those are the types of games Nintendo has always made and that's why I like them.

In a way, it's almost like he's saying "Let Nintendo make the big expansive epic games and the 3rd parties make the smaller, gimmicky games. See how well Nintendogs is doing? dont you wanna cash in on this $$$? we know you do, developers!"

I seriously have no idea what Miyamoto or anyone from Nintendo is saying anymore. It sounds like strange nonsense.

I can see how straying from expansive games will mean quicker dev time, cheaper games where more money is to be made than spent on its creation and R&D. But the expansive, epic games will always outsell them.

[Dark Jaguar]

Seriously, what is he on?

There's also the possibility that the translator was on something. One thing is for sure, drugs are somehow involved.

I mean really. I can see how making an especially large game could mean, realistically, that the content suffers and only a few parts can be fun. However, in an ideal situation where they can get a decent length and make each moment high quality (as in previous Zelda games), length can only add to the experience. Sometimes I just don't have the time to finish a game I started, but I'd still rather have a long quality experience than a short one, because I still have something to look forward to.

[A Black Falcon]

What I think it is is bashing the competition, primarially... :)

[N-Man]

I understand there's some incongruities in it, but I'm just happy to hear him say it. The fact that the man himself practically echoes my own feelings as far as games go is pretty rad - especially as most of you seem to disagree - it's like I got friends in high places :D.

DJ, "epic" doesn't just refer to the length of the game. Giving Gradius an extra 60 levels doesn't make it epic. Know what I mean? Super Mario Bros. 3 is pretty long, but it's hardly epic.

[Dark Jaguar]

Why me of all people? I didn't once equate epic with length, I just commented on length because lazy did. It was everyone ABOVE me that equated length with "epicness".

And oh yes, if that means you agree that games must be both shorter AND less amazing... sorry, I don't agree.

[A Black Falcon]

In their other comments, Nintendo pretty much said that they think people sometimes want the big epic titles, but that not all games should be that way, and with rising game budgets, it's heading in that direction... they're right about the budgets part, and they're right that those budgets mean 'bigger' and 'safer' games, of course (as we've said here many times before). But the problem is, at least in the US people still WANT a lot of those aspects that the high budgets bring. It's Japan that has the problem with falling game sales, not here... so this approach, while just as true industry-wise here, just doesn't seem likely to have as much of an impact on the industry in the US. Or on the gaming public.

Even so, given that at this point Nintendo would probably never win if they tried to be just like Sony and MS, it's really all they can do, and hope for the best...

[lazyfatbum]

you dont need a huge budget to make epic games, many companies have proven that. Miyamoto uses GTA as an example of 'expansive and epic' not because of how much its development costs (it was done rather cheaply), but rather because of how much time you need to invest in the game.

which is BS since all the GTA games are pick up and play type games. So is Halo. Halo is a generic FPS; If you played any FPS in your life you can pick up and play Halo.

But he uses two American-made games specifically. If you want to see a time investment, look at any Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Castlevania, etc. those games require hours just to get the basics down and most of time spend alot of time with a tutorial-level that they force you to go through. (which RE4 didnt have, which I thought was pretty cool).

When I get Killer7, I know i'm looking at a huge time investment and that's why I want it. But I also know it's made by Capcom which means that for the most part it will be very fluid and easy to play. But I guess most consumers wont know that...

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,6..._tophead_2

Another Miyamoto interview, another few interesting tidbits...

[Dark Jaguar]

Interesting... Apparently he actually thinks a game like Nintendogs is unique... I am VERY skeptical about such a claim... I'll need Nintendo to prove to me that this isn't just Japanese Dogz.

Moving along, Nintendo's comments regarding Mario games don't surprise me. As ABF suspected all along they are not only in the planning stages, they are in the very primordial "huh, what should we really even do here?" stages. That says that pretty much nothing is done, at all.

And once again, their controller is "super innovative". Now analog I can see, that really changed the degree of control one has in a game (though it did exist before then, it wasn't really standard on a gamepad). Rumble was a gimic, pure and simple. Zelda is the only game to really use it for gameplay purposes, and it wasn't even needed. Wireless is just a cord issue.

So, I fear what this epic big gun could be... Miyamoto don't drop the ball on this one...