I have no Doubt Gunpei was a great guy, and a marvelous inventor, but he's like the inventor of a musical instrument. Sure, it would be impossible to have Yo Yo Ma with out the inventor of the Cello, but the fact is, no one remembers the inventor of a musical instrument, they just remember the artist who made the instrument sing.

And I don't really buy your actor analogy. Yes those guys are great developers, but they didn't ever invent a genre. Miyamoto is to video games what Charlie Chaplin is to early film. It was around before him, and better after him, but no one ever captured the imagination of audiences WORLDWIDE in his time quite like him.

As for proof, ask random people on the street (anywhere in the world, mind you) if they know what Wolfenstein, Fable, Metal Gear Solid, et. al. are. Chances are you'll find only a slim few who know what your talking about. Now ask the same people what Mario, Donkey Kong, or Wii Fit are--I assure you you'll have a much higher percentage of correct answers in the latter category.

Hell, there was a time when more Canadians knew who Mario was than their own Prime Minister:
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/13/mario-more-recognizable-in-canada-than...

Dont get me wrong, I do wish Solid Snake and others had that kind of following, and maybe someday they will, but as of today they simply do not.

because people pirated the songs a lot more frequently once they were easy to transfer between computers.

Also because the studios had heavy investments in retail stores. Many of these stores' profit margins were too slim to withstand the digital revolution, and as such they were hit hard enough to where they had to close entirely (see: Sam Goody, Virgin Megastore, Blockbuster Music, Media Play).

Now that the music industry has wised up and made good deals with itunes, amazon, and other online outlets, the situation is not nearly as bad. But if you get in a time machine, go back 7 years and mention "Napster" to any record label executive, you'll see what i'm talking about.

I'm not sure how you think I confused him with Gunpei Yokoi. This argument has gotten off to quite a tangent about hardware, hasn't it? My fault for mentioning the balance board, I s'pose. I will reiterate that Miyamoto was the primary influence behind the design of the balance board, but I said that originally only to point out his influence--I didn't mean to digress to a hardware argument.

Miyamoto's involvement on controller design not withstanding (this article really doesn't have that much to do with hardware anyway), his influence of the industry is unparalleled. From early genre establishments in platformers and adventure games, to trends today like exergaming and widespread use of avatars, his trend setting can not be argued against. As such what i meant is that it would be wise to take heed of his ascertations on the industry's general trends.

And to return to his argument here, sure, digital distribution could be a very powerful method in the future, but as an entire way of distributing content it is not a basket you want to put all your eggs in yet. Just look at the music industry... yes digital distribution of songs is widespread today, and the music industry has lost a big chunk of revenue to digital distribution, but you know what? 70% of all music sales are still from physical media. I won't say that digital distribution isn't a wave of the future, but many people in our circles think it's a lot more powerful than it actually is, while the mainstream crowd hasn't fully accepted it yet.

That's part of the reason i believe PSP Go won't do well at retail. It's too expensive, and it's too soon for current audiences to accept, (despite the fact it is a great piece of hardware).

Please do not refer to Miyamoto-san as "this guy."

Feel free to question his opinion on digital distribution if you want, but the fact is he's had more influence on the gaming industry then ANYONE, and too toss his opinion aside is just foolish.

If I told you 5 years ago that something on par with 4 bathroom scales taped together would the biggest revenue generator of this generation, you would've said I was crazy and tossed my opinon aside. And here we are today with Wii Fit's install base nearly as big as the PS3s. It would be wise to listen to Miyamoto, just sayin.

He could've been referring to Resident Evil 4 wii edition, which sold well and had good reviews.

I agree with you though. Other examples of good selling core games on Wii are SW:TFU, CoD:WaW, and those two would certainly agree with your name/brand ascertation.

Its a shame new I.P.s have trouble taking off, but i do have hope for the conduit still. Let's wait and see if it has any legs.