Miyamoto's Wired interview

[patsu]

‘I’m Retiring,’ Nintendo’s Miyamoto Tells His Staff
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/12/miyamoto-interview/

In an exclusive interview with Wired.com on Wednesday, the 59-year-old head of Nintendo’s game design department said that he will move away from supervising the development of massive games like this year’s Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land, passing the torch to the younger designers in the company and working on projects that won’t take as long to complete.

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto said through his interpreter. “I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.”

“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.”

Miyamoto said that he’s hoping to start work on a project in 2012, and hopefully show the game off publicly within the year.

“In other words, I’m not intending to start from things that require a five-year development time,” he said.

...

 

[patsu]

Nintendo Game Chief Sees Better Times Ahead
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/12/08/nintendo-game-chief-sees-better-times-ahead/

Nintendo has had a bumpy year. But its legendary game development chief sees reason for optimism.

Shigeru Miyamoto, who spearheaded the development of modern video games with the hit Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda franchises, sounds upbeat in part because some games that could have helped its struggling 3DS handheld device are available now and selling well.

...

For months afterward, Nintendo was off its footing: the 3DS disappointments led the company to cut its price by 40% in August. Then, in October, the company cut its forecasts and said it expected its first annual loss in more than three decades, due to sluggish sales of five-year old Wii home videogame console.

Since then, three key titles–”Mario Kart 7,” “Super Mario 3D Land” and “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword”–have been released. Miyamoto ushered all three to market.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Thursday, he said these games represented one of his biggest efforts yet. Fans appear to agree: Sales of the games have been among the best in the company’s history, giving it a forward thrust into the important holiday shopping season.

Miyamoto, speaking through a translator, acknowledged that both Mario titles should have been available for the 3DS at launch.

...

 

[TheChefO]

It's easy to blame the sluggish sales on not having Mario & Mariokart at launch, but part of it was the relatively high price for the hardware and the increased pressure of other mobile devices.

I hope there is a young "Miyamoto" at Nintendo that can help spark a fire under their arses and be given the resources he needs to get things moving.

Nintendo is being squeezed on multiple fronts and they will need someone of Miyamoto's caliber to step up and inject truly innovative and inspired games.

He truly is a great mind and inspiration for the games industry.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

It's easy to blame the sluggish sales on not having Mario & Mariokart at launch, but part of it was the relatively high price for the hardware and the increased pressure of other mobile devices.

Yes, but one has to wonder if the price drop would've been that large (or there'd be a price drop at all) if Mario Kart 7 and Mario 3D Land were launch titles.

 

[TheChefO]

Yes, but one has to wonder if the price drop would've been that large (or there'd be a price drop at all) if Mario Kart 7 and Mario 3D Land were launch titles.

Indeed.

I think it's safe to say it would have had stronger sales initially.

Trying to target software like Mario and Mariokart for launch would have been a tall task. One that Team Nintendo should have been up to, given the astounding Wii and DS profits, but it seems these profits weren't invested back into the company.

 

[steampoweredgod]

How can they have annual losses if they're not selling hardware at a significant loss and have several multimillion selling first party franchises?

I mean super mario 3ds, mario kart, zelda, have been released this year. I think they even had pokemon out this year.

The wii might be sluggish, but a while back when the videogame market was smaller, those numbers would have been really big.

 

[patsu]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/10/BUNO1MAJJR.DTL

...

Nintendo has resisted bringing its franchises to smart phones and tablets, where games sell for a fraction of the $40 the company charges for 3DS titles. But people are increasingly playing games on those mobile devices. Market research firm Flurry reported that this year, sales of games for iOS and Android devices will exceed sales of games for handheld consoles for the first time.

But Miyamoto said he doesn't see smart phones as ideal gaming platforms, and that the best opportunities for game development still lie in Nintendo's own hardware.

"What we really have to do is try to be different," he said. "We are trying to create something that can never be reproduced on the smart phone."

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And he'd be right, I reckon. They'd have to sell 10x as many Mario's at $4 to match the same sales they get on $40 games. Okay, I don't know what the profits are like as the costs are very different, but where last gen I was one advocating Nintendo became a Sega and dropped hardware, I can't support that view in the cheap mobile sector. Maybe if we start to see a prevalence of AAA titles at decent prices (Epic launching games at $5-10) then the economies of scale will be worth it, but not now.