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Miyamoto Unplugged
By Edge Staff
December 1, 2008
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"I saw what was fun about raising a dog and created Nintendogs. With Wii Fit I started weighing myself every day, in the hope of becoming more healthy, and I found something that was fun and interesting in that and turned it into a videogame."
The last time we spoke with Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s future still hung in the balance.
Back then, Wii was codenamed Revolution, and Sony, with PS3 months from release, still dominated the game market. Today, the situation is very different, so much so that we hardly bat an eyelid when Miyamoto says: “To tell the truth, I have this big ambition for Wii Music, that it can eventually be something so influential that it might be able to influence what music means in the world.”
Brash from anyone else, such a statement can only be seen in the light of the massive changes Wii has wrought in the two years since its release, having asserted itself as an essential element of so many family living rooms. Wii Music is the latest game to emphasise this ethos, but its awkward centrepiece demonstration during Nintendo’s E3 2008 presentation exposed it to heavy criticism by many observers for being simplistic and a declaration of Nintendo’s disregard for core gamers.
Indeed, reviews of Wii Music have already been published by the time we meet Miyamoto, and many have not been complimentary. It’s probably best, however, not to think of Wii Music as a game. Miyamoto is, in fact, careful not to refer to it as anything other than just “software” during our interview. It’s not driven by scoring. There are no fail states. You simply play with it, your success down to how much you’re enjoying yourself and the quality of the noise you’re making.
Miyamoto is careful to reiterate that his teams are currently working on new Mario and Zelda games, and Wii Music is less an inconsequential piece of mainstream fluff than another piece of finely designed software that’s tuned to appeal to all. But it is another reminder that Nintendo is no longer the underdog company championed by gamers during the days of Revolution.
EDGE: Who did you have in your mind when you created Wii Music?
MIYAMOTO: When I’m making something I think in terms of my own family, and always imagine how my entire family can enjoy it together. I think a very large audience can enjoy Wii Music. As a matter of fact, when we asked people to do hands-on demos, many of them took to it. High-school students who performed in their own band enjoyed it, and even middle-aged men who have never touched a musical instrument before were excited to play together.
Those that are good at playing musical instruments can play with those that can’t. I really don’t know who are actually going to purchase the game, but I hope that schoolchildren will play. Children get access to music education by first being taught basic theory and then playing musical instruments, but that is really not easy. The primary purpose of letting children learn theory and play instruments is for them to be able to learn the joy of music and how to express themselves through it.
I think Wii Music approaches it completely differently from the school curriculum – you don’t need to learn the difficult theory or master the different instruments, but you will get access to the immediate joy of music itself. I want many small children to get access to Wii Music.
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
This Einstein quote can be applied to Miyamoto and the success of the Wii.
Is it me or has Miyamoto become increasingly arrogant?
While I do agree that making a game based off of your own interests could lead to more enthusiasm for the product, I also wonder if he is excluding a wider audience in favor of himself and his family? This could be dangerous territory. How popular is Wii Music in the US again?
"excluding a wider audience" - That's funny.
I thought almost everything he's done has been infuenced by his childhood adventures or playing with/watching his kids.
And doesn't most of their successful stuff take a while to take off? People getting used to new paradigms and all.
True. I forgot about that. I don't know. I guess I'm adjusting to the "new" Nintendo. Not trying to troll or anything.
I don't think I'll adjust to Wii Music anytime soon, though.
All Hail Miyamoto!
About the Wii's online experience (page 5). Hopefully someone from Nintendo is reading, I'd like to make a suggestion as to how things can be greatly improved without sacrificing any safety.
First thing is that individual game codes could be dropped leaving just Wii friend codes, although this may be difficult or impossible to put into games using the current system. If you're online with someone anonymous (continental or world game) you could be limited to fixed text and if you're online with friend(s) you could use fixed text, free text and speech. If you're online with a mixture of the two then your friend(s) could receive fixed text, free text, and speech and the rest would only receive fixed text.
The diary could be modified so that it becomes a central point for managing online. Each contact could have series of tick boxes with options like the ability to send this contact free text, send this contact speech, the ability to receive free text from this contact, and receive speech.
Parental controls could set up could veto the settings for an individual contact (disable sending free text and speech, receiving free text and speech, and disabling the contact entirely), could set up the default tick boxes for new contacts (e.g. no receiving of text or sound for new contacts without the parents' say so), if the child is allowed to change the tick boxes on their own, and finally if the parent needs to approve new contacts before they're treated as activated.
The diary could also show if the contact is online at this moment and what they are doing (if they are in the Wii Menu or which game they are playing) allowing players to easily meet up in games or send messages to arrange a meet up, maybe instant messages instead of the current bulletin board messages which can take a while to arrive.
It'd be difficult to accuse Nintendo of forgetting about safety on line with a system like this, be far easier to use than what's there at the moment, and it'd probably make for a better environment for adults than other competing consoles too as they will get free text and speech just from people they want and nobody else.
Hopefully this message hasn't been in vain...
That was a great read although as a core gamer i was expecting slightly more placation from the great one.