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Is she worth it?
Posts: 9,577
Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Boston
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New Miyamoto Interview (Talks About Revolution, New Super Mario Bros, & More) Wired News: The Japanese games industry is in trouble, as sales keep dropping. What is Nintendo doing to get things going again?
Shigeru Miyamoto: I don't really think it's a Japanese problem. I think it's an industrywide and worldwide issue. In fact, I'm surprised how well the U.S. has held up; I think the U.S. is more the exception rather than the rule.
What's happening with video games is the same thing that happens with anything new and interesting. At the beginning, everybody wants to see what it is. They gather around and check it out. But gradually, people start to lose interest.
The people who don't lose interest become more and more involved. And the medium starts to be influenced by only those people. It becomes something exclusive to the people who've stuck with it for a long time. And when the people who were interested in it at first look back at it, it's no longer the thing that interested them.
So obviously, it's very important for us to create brand new things that bring back those people. But it's just as important to create the kind of games that current gamers know they like.
WN: If you look, for example, at Space Invaders or Street Fighter II, those games were amazingly popular. But now, space shooters and fighting games are niche genres.
Miyamoto: One of the things that we're looking at as an answer to this issue are games like Nintendogs. It's sold over 400,000 units to date in Japan, and we think it'll just continue to sell for a long time. A great thing about Nintendogs is that one-third of the purchasers of that title are also buying the Nintendo DS hardware. So it's bringing people back, or even bringing people into video games for the first time.
WN: So why is Nintendogs so appealing to the masses?
Miyamoto: Because rather than trying to follow industry trends, it's based on things that people find appealing in general. Not just what they find appealing in a video game.
Moreover, I think that if companies are challenged financially, or are concerned only with profits, they're going to only create things that are safe, products that are proven to sell. And that's what they're going to continue to crank out.
Nintendo's always been about challenging itself to come up with interesting things. People from outside might say that we make many different games with Mario every year, or a lot of Zelda games. But within those titles are always new and interesting challenges. We have the luxury of being both profitable and creative.
WN: Speaking of which, New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS is a rather ambitious follow-up to a revered series. Who are the team members working on the game?
Miyamoto: (Longtime Mario series lead director Takashi) Tezuka and (Zelda series lead programmer Toshihiko) Nakago are heading up the project, and I jump in from time to time. So it's really close to the original Mario team members.
When Mario went 3-D, there were a lot of new things that Mario could do and that the player could experience. But moving from the side-scrolling game that everybody is used to into a full 3-D environment, the game design process became more difficult.
With the DS we wanted a game that uses cutting-edge technology -- you're using wireless gameplay for two-player simultaneous Mario -- but also has gone back to the roots of the series to be a game that anybody can pick up because it's very familiar. We wanted a Mario game that everybody can be excited to play.
WN: This is the first traditional side-scrolling Mario game Nintendo has made since 1991. Why wait this long to do a new Mario game in the original style?
Miyamoto: Because we'd spent all this time working on 3-D Mario games. And of course, when we had Rare developing the side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country games, we were able to rely on them, which kept us from coming back to side-scrollers for a long time.
WN: But there's still no sign of the long-rumored Mario 128 for GameCube.
Miyamoto: It's still floating around. We're searching for that fundamental idea that's going to drive the next 3-D Mario game. But we're not sure when that's going to jump out at us. We're doing lots of tests with small groups.
WN: If that's the case -- if the design process is still at the point where you're doing experiments and tests -- is it even possible that Mario 128 could come out on GameCube at this point? Or is it definitely a Revolution title?
Miyamoto: We think we want it on Revolution.
WN: So, there will be no new GameCube Mario platform game.
Miyamoto: Right. The Mario team can't create too many games at the same time, so they're concentrating on the Revolution.
WN: At your E3 press conference, Nintendo announced that the Revolution will be able to download and play games from Nintendo's back catalog. Does that mean that the entire library of Nintendo-published games will be available?
Miyamoto: Technologically speaking, it's possible to run every previous Nintendo game. It's just a matter of picking which ones we want to have available.
WN: The Revolution's controller wasn't shown, but there has been a lot of speculation as to what special functionality it will have. Can you tell us about that?
Miyamoto: Nintendo is always trying to be on the forefront of control innovations, like the analog stick, rumble or wireless. As soon as these are available, our competitors snatch them up.
Because the user interface is going to drive the Revolution software design, that's what's going to make our software stand out. Nobody else is going to be able to do what we do with next-generation game software. So, I can't reveal anything. It's under wraps because it's the big gun.
wired.com
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Friend of the Friendless
Posts: 18,112
Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Houston
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Nothing really new here =/
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I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. -Thomas Jefferson,
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Is she worth it?
Posts: 9,577
Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Boston
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You must have missed the part where he says the Dev's controller is a big gun. OMG!! Nintendo is teh maturez!!123
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Highly, I say
Posts: 5,103
Join Date: May 2005 Location: Ireland
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It's stupid how everyone keeps asking about the controller. Do they really think thye'll get an answer?
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N-Phile
Posts: 3,618
Join Date: May 2002 Location: PA
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Iris It's stupid how everyone keeps asking about the controller. Do they really think thye'll get an answer?
I was just thinking it would be really funny if Nintendo decided to randomly reveal it in an interview.
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Someone's Ugly Daughter
Posts: 19,378
Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: In a new home.
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Iris It's stupid how everyone keeps asking about the controller. Do they really think thye'll get an answer?
Why not? You keep buggin people enough adns ometimes they let something slip.
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CTU agent
Posts: 8,945
Join Date: Jun 2004
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GS said the reason why they didn't reveal the controller at E3, was because it wasn't even finished yet. They're still meddling with different ideas.
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The secular progressive movement(liberals)are ruining this country.
 
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More WiiWare
Posts: 4,799
Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Utah
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I hope he's just being kinda secretive about Mario 128. They can't still only be in test phase for having a Mario ready for Rev launch.
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Super
Posts: 12,190
Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: A Galaxy far far away....
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They probably have the game deep into development at this point. Nintendo is just play with our minds.
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Mario's Bitch
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Will Never Be Another
Posts: 46,290
Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Miami, Florida
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if they dont launch with a mario game, I'll be so pissed. I know they arent that crazy after launching with luigi's mansion(which wasnt a good game, but not well recieved)
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is it?
Posts: 22,220
Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Louisiana
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The Rev needs to launch with a Mario game. Luigi's Mansion was excellent, but very short, not to mention the fact that it appealed to (roughly) five vacuum salesmen in Ohio and pretty much nobody else.
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Kung Fu treachery.
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Roll with it
Posts: 2,930
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ontario, Canada
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Miyamato Interview "WN: But there's still no sign of the long-rumored Mario 128 for GameCube.
Miyamoto: It's still floating around. We're searching for that fundamental idea that's going to drive the next 3-D Mario game. But we're not sure when that's going to jump out at us. We're doing lots of tests with small groups."
so basically mario 128 is...still an idea
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Don't worry, be happy. 
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Needle Mouse
Posts: 14,987
Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas City, MO
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Pojo The Rev needs to launch with a Mario game. Luigi's Mansion was excellent, but very short, not to mention the fact that it appealed to (roughly) five vacuum salesmen in Ohio and pretty much nobody else.
Luigi's Mansion rocked...
Anyways, I wish Sony and Microsoft confirmed their plans now just so we can see what the controller is.
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live, and love
Posts: 2,762
Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Fort Smith, AR
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it's the big gun....heh, it better have lots of ammo with it as well.
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still going strong
Posts: 8,019
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Philadelphia
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I hope he's just being kinda secretive about Mario 128. They can't still only be in test phase for having a Mario ready for Rev launch.
When you think about it, they could program the graphics, many of the levels, the, uh, 'plot', and just about everything else, bearing in mind one of several possible setups could eventually be used for controlling Mario. It's still a platformer, people. I don't think they'll have a hard time pushing out a finished product in the next year taking that into account.
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