As part of their special 1000th issue celebration, Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu sat down with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto to talk about where he and Nintendo have been, and where they might go next.
Perhaps one of the article's most interesting digressions delved into the mentality behind the development of the GameCube. When asked if any products have remained with him over the years, Miyamoto paused for a moment and responded, "It's not a game, but maybe the GameCube's controller. We made it as a culmination of everything leading up to it, but it really underwhelmed. 'This line of thinking doesn't give us anything else to shoot for, does it?' That's how I felt."
When prodded further, Miyamoto admitted that was what led to the Wii Remote. "The GameCube controller is a product of us feeling that, without this or that, people wouldn't be able to play the games we make. But then we realized that was a problem, that we were thinking based on that controller as the premise."
Despite the interviewer coming to the controller's defense, Miyamoto pushed on, stating that as a result, they weren't able to bring in new gamers. Despite his belief that entries in the Zelda series have gotten better-and while the games continued to do well in North America-sales in Japan were dropping with each release. "For GameCube software across the board, we weren't able to predict the sales figures as well as before. It was around then that it hit us: the market was disappearing."
Miyamoto also shed light on two themes they tackled at the DS's inception. "The first was 'something Mom won't hate.' It had always been that if your mom caught you playing Mario she would frown, but if she walked in while you were watching a Disney movie she'd be all smiles. Both give kids something to dream about, if you ask me." The only way to rectify the situation was to get Mom to understand the system and actually try it. "The other theme was 'making it so you could bring the system to school.' Why can't a game system help out at school, right?" If the DS could fill the role of existing classroom materials like flash cards, maybe the world would change. "I wanted to make titles like [the Japanese/kanji dictionary released only in Japan] even if they didn't sell. If we could succeed in getting them out there and take that next step, people might be able to take their DS's out into public or to school."
When asked about the success of Wii Fit and whether more titles for the peripheral were on the way, Miyamoto only suggested, "If it continues to gain popularity overseas, that's something I look forward to, since it means more Wii Balance Board titles might come out."
So what comes next for Nintendo? Miyamoto replied that he'd like to do more with games people can carry around with them, like with the DS. "Once people can use it in a wide range of public places, we could probably set up servers and create a good environment that links together play at home and play on the go-then work game technology into that." He later adds, "When you take your DS out on the town, you'll be able to do all kinds of fun things with it in public spaces. This year we plan to challenge ourselves with that kind of system."
What about Mario and Zelda and the good ol' Nintendo mainstays? Don't worry, says Miyamoto; more Mario, Zelda, and lots more surprises are on the way. "I'm making 'em all," he ended with a laugh.
