And people say you can’t learn a thing from newspapers these days (well, Eoco does at least). In Saturday’s Times in the UK, an article in the business section covered a couple of pieces of speculation about the Wii 2 - how it would be controlled, what Nintendo would do in terms of power, and so on. Beside this article was a teeny-weeny box talking about Shigeru Miyamoto, undoubtedly one of Nintendo’s biggest assets, and how he’s not allowed to talk to us about his hobbies.

Wait, what?

According to the Times article Miyamoto, Nintendo’s biggest game designer and the brains behind Mario, Zelda, Nintendogs and Wii Fit, is now banned by the company from talking about his hobbies and his personal life. The reasoning for this makes perfect sense: any one of Miyamoto’s stray thoughts can lead to the beginnings of a million-selling game.

After Miyamoto developed an interests in puzzles, exercise and music, the Brain Training, Wii Fit and Wii Music franchises were born. After creating a new franchise called Donkey Kong, the Miyamoto-designed main character Jumpman was given his own series with a brand new name: Mario.

Anything that Miyamoto thinks can probably be turned into a highly-profitable game franchise, so talking about what he does could give any competitors with an ear to the grapevine some ideas. If he mentioned that he liked, say, cycling, you could imagine what developers could pull out of that. Anything he says could be spun out into a profitable product.

It makes perfect business sense but at the same time you need to spare a thought for poor old Miyamoto, his innovative gob now locked away in Nintendo’s prison cells, unable to speak in case he loses the company a lot of money. As much of a genius as he is, it’s a bit of a shame to be restricted in this sort of way. Damn thee, Nintendo, and thy Soviet-era ways!

The Nintendo gaming world awaits another Mario - TimesOnline

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