Miyamoto Confirms New Mario, Zelda, Pikmin Projects

Relax. Nintendo has not forgotten you. Making new titles for the traditional fanbase just takes time, says Shigeru Miyamoto, speaking to the Telegraph recently in an interview.

Said Miyamoto:

"Making these 'traditional' games is what I am best at. Because games of that nature take upwards of two or three years to make, we always have to keep the teams working on those projects going. At any given time, the team could be five to ten people, or it could be 50-plus. People are always switching in and out of those teams.

Miyamoto Caught on Film Checking Out Killzone 2

As with previous E3s, Nintendo tastemaker Shigeru Miyamoto swung by a few booths to check out the action. In this vid we get a glimpse of Miyamoto getting a glimpse of hardcore shooter Killzone 2. What I don't get is why he keeps looking at these big-name shooters. He's been pretty clear in the past about how he feels about them.

[Thanks Runandgun]

At the E3 Nintendo Developer Roundtable that followed day two of the gaming expo, Shigeru Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi — the latter is the producer on Wii Sports Resort, Animal Crossing City Folk and Wii Music — spent additional time with the press showing off upcoming Wii wares. The two also fielded a barrage of questions from the crowd.

One question asked of Miyamoto was Wii Music's qualifications as a game. You know, a game game. Since Wii Music has no discernible scoring system, no goals and little in the way of those squishy innards that makes a game a "game," isn't it just a "musical toy"? That was the question posed by one European journo.

"Yes, that's right," Miyamoto curtly replied "And that's why it's more interesting than a video game."

Here Are Nintendo E3 Press Conference Speakers

Tomorrow, Nintendo will kick off its E3 press conference. What to expect? Nintendo brass standing on stage, talking about stuff. What stuff? Dunno! What we do know is that Nintendo has confirmed Nintendo Co. Ltd. president Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America executive vice president for sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway and Nintendo of America vice president of marketing and corporate affairs Denise Kaigler will be on stage this Tuesday morning — not necessarily in that order. Whew, some of those folks have long job titles!

Nintendo confirms E3 speakers [CVG] [Pic]

That's one of the tidbits coming out of a 90 minute interview Shigeru Miyamoto did with Wired, in which he expounds at great length on Wii Fit and to other degrees on subjects such as the Wii's graphical capabilities, competitor imitation of the Wiimote, and other matters. Here's an interesting excerpt:

Miyamoto: I think that the understanding of the Wii remote technology has certainly proliferated to developers, and their understanding of how it works is now very strong. But, I think that in terms of developing games for the Wii remote, it's really more about the focus of the team and how thoroughly they consider the user interface and the end experience for the consumer in terms of how intuitive that is and how easy it is to use. And, at this point, I think it's just difficult for me to say how many teams that are really focused on that experience ae out there and are working on games.

In other words, shovelware, by its nature, doesn't fully employ the capabilities of Nintendo's unique controller. Or any, controller, really.

Was that too harsh? I need to go back and watch "I Love the World" again. In all fairness, Miyamoto covers a ton of ground in this talk, including how his approach to designing Donkey Kong carries forward to game design today. Check it out.

90 Minutes with Miyamoto, Nintendo's Master of Amusement [Wired]

Miyamoto's Secret To Quality Control: Less Sega, More Mario

With console warring between Nintendo and Sega a thing of the past, Sega now relegated to a software only existence — robot girlfriends and indoor astronomy gizmos not included — you'd think that those Genesis era wounds would have healed. Perhaps without meaning to, famed Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto may have split them open again.

When asked about maintaining quality control at Nintendo, Miyamoto says the key is in avoiding Sega-style design. He tells Wired, "I'm always instructing my game designers on the history of the characters and worlds we've created. Often we're in development and I'll say, 'Oh, this looks like a Sega game. We need to make it look more like Mario.'" Ouch.

In Miyamoto's defense, he may have been talking about Sega's last decade or so of existence. And that's totally fair.

15th Anniversary: Revenge of the Wii [Wired via NeoGAF]

"Over the Last Five Years, My Games Have Changed Somewhat"

Miyamoto gets a dog, makes Nintendogs. Miyamoto starts weighing himself for fun, makes Wii Fit. See a trend? It wasn't always that way! While his earlier games were influenced by his life and experiences, they were influenced abstractly — more make-believe, less reality. According to Miyamoto:

I would say that over the last five years or so, the types of games I create has changed somewhat. Whereas before I could kind of use my own imagination to create these worlds or create these games, I would say that over the last five years I’ve had more of a tendency to take interests or topics in my life and try to draw the entertainment out of that.

Every artist goes through phases — even Shigeru Miyamoto.
Resistance is Futile [NY Times]

I spent the first half of this week hanging out with the likes of Michael Pachter, Peter Moore, Mike Gallagher and Nintendo of America's recently appointed vice president of marketing, Cammie Dunaway at Ziff Davis' Electronic Gaming Summit.

It was the first time I met Dunaway and we ended up chatting quite a bit during a dinner on the last night, hosted at a nearby vineyard, held in a castle of all places.

Dunaway, it turns out, had just flown in from New York where she helped kick off the launch of the Wii Fit in Central Park.

"I'm sure Wii Fit is going to sell very well," I told her, "but I suspect it's going to be like every other piece of exercise equipment people buy for themselves: In a few weeks or a month it's going to have laundry piled on it or be back in its box."

Not so, Dunaway insisted.

"America Has Always Been Better At Creating Unique Products"

The latest "Iwata Asks" segment, this time touching on Link's Crossbow Training and the Wii Zapper, is a doozy. It's Miyamoto and Iwata kicking back, enjoying tea and biscuits, and telling us all about some of the crazy, crazy shit they may or may not have actually planned for not only Link's Crossbow Training, but the Zelda series itself. Like, what kinda crazy shit? How about an idea to originally make Ocarina of Time a first-person Zelda adventure. Or that Miyamoto thought they could justify Link's use of a gun (ie the Wii Zapper) by having the game feature a "Terminator style story about a time warp from the future". Or that the idea for the Zapper came from a Twilight Princess dev showing Miyamoto he'd stuck a Wii Remote and Nunchuk together using rubber bands, only to be told to get lost because he had more important work to be doing. Like I said, they may be true, they may be total lies, who cares, it's good reading.

Iwata Asks: Link's Crossbow Training [Nintendo]

We have all laughed and joked about being told that we're fat and need to lose weight but I was gobsmacked when it [Wii Fit] told her that she is overweight. She is a healthy 10 year old girl with an active lifestyle, she swims and dances every week. She is 92lbs and 4ft9" tall and there is not an inch of fat on her. She is solidly built but not fat. She was devasted to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her that she isn't. I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them their fat. This to me is very worrying and I hope that is doesn't cause emotional problems for any youngsters out there :(

Miis, Serious Business

To Nintendo, licensing Mii is identical to licensing Mario. If you read Iwata Asks interview series in website, you can understand how Mii was created in detail, so I hope you can read them if you have time. Mii is actually the result of more than 10 years of efforts.

Nintendo luminary Shigeru Miyamoto tops the list of Time Magazine's Most Influential People of 2008, as determined by reader vote, soundly demonstrating that he is more important to the entire universe than Al Gore, Heidi Klum, Stephen Colbert and a Korean pop star named Rain.

55 year-old Miyamoto, who's never been on a Time cover, comes out on top in his very first outing on the list with 1,949,634 votes, an achievement that foretells a future populated with towering statues in his likeness. Here's Time's stats on him:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Getting something like this really makes the last thirty years worth it. It's somewhat unreal, somewhat of a dream. Five years ago, I never thought I'd be making something like Wii Fit. I thought I'd be making more Mario and Zelda.

...Nintendo design boss Shigeru Miyamoto had wanted to include a mode that would allow players to weigh their pets. He wasn't able to include it in the Japanese version, but in the North American version, available May 19th, players will receive a message informing them that if they weigh themselves while holding their pets, then weigh themselves again separately and subtract the two, the difference will tell them how much their pet weighs.

Wii Fit "Strengthens" Your Right to Game

Wii Fit is not a game. Really, it's not. Even if it is in Miyamoto's mind it is, Wii Fit ain't. No wonder many game-playing folks are dismissing it. Not so fast! Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says not to be so quickly to judge. Wii Fit is making things better, building bridges. According to Miyamoto:

Really, what Wii Fit represents and what Nintendo is trying to do with Wii Fit is expand the gaming population. And the reason that is important for them is because as more and more people of different ages start playing — even if it's just games like Wii Fit —- their understanding of what video games are and the fact that they're even playing games is going to better their understanding of what gamers are... So in a sense what we're doing by increasing the gaming population is strengthening their right to continue to game. I hope they'll keep that in mind.

Miyamoto Happy To Report Minimal Wii Fit "Incidents"

In a recent interview with MTV, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was asked whether or not he'd been worried about the public falling from Balance Boards (leading to what would inevitably be more cracked televisions, this time ala head). And according to Miyamotos response, those Balance Boards are every bit as safe as we'd expect a 1/2-inch platform to be.

I am happy to say that with so many out there, we have had relatively few incidents.

Top Nintendo Designer Shigeru Miyamoto Talks 'Wii Fit' And Appealing To Unhealthy Americans [MTV]

While Wii Fit has become somewhat of a family sensation in Japan, Miyamoto says he's not sure how an American audience will receive the game. When we asked Miyamoto what he expected from American consumers, he noted that on average, American families are apart more often than those in Japan. A lot of families have parents who have separated or divorced, so it's tougher to predict the role family will play in the American response to Wii Fit—and we couldn't agree more.