In an interview with SF Gate, Miyamoto waxes philosophical about game making, the direction of the industry, and about his own approach to making video games.
I was struck by one little gem in the article that set off my “Who are you kidding?” alarm.
Even now we’re seeing that with a game like Wii Music. While there are so-called casual gamers who are enjoying the game very much, there are so-called core gamers who have become very big fans.
What kind of “core” gamer is going to get anything more than a passing giggle out of flailing their arms to recreate Nintendo game themes or the 1812 Overture?
What are they drinking in Nintendo break rooms to delude themselves into thinking everything they do resonates with everyone? Wii Music is the biggest non-announcement perhaps in the company’s history. It innovates on nothing. It rewards core gamers in NO WAY. It’s like Nintendo were too cheap to license a proven game mechanic, so they just half-assed it.
No kidding. Well they are certainly proving that with nearly each and every release. The thing about catering to casual gamers is, there are lots of them. TONS of them, which makes the novelty of the Wii a very popular and profitable thing… right now. But the downside of building a company’s new direction around games is the attachment rate. Nintendo’s Wii has the lowest attachment rate of any console on the market.
Why?
Because video games are low on the priority list for casual audience members. They don’t look forward to upcoming releases or read game blogs. If they play a game they like, they MIGHT buy it if they prioritize it above the grocery shopping, the errands, and work.
In the short term, Nintendo are certainly breaking new grounds with the Wii, in regards to reach. They are in a LOT of homes, which is great if they get their act together. Graphics and interactive defficiencies aside, without something to offer gamers if/when they decide they want more than leaning around on a bathroom scale or flailing to unpopular irrelevant music, Nintendo are building a house of cards while a hurricane of truly inventive content brews in the gulf of Sony and off the coast of Microsoft.
It’s a gamble, and i would be a fool to sit here and say they are doomed, but I do think they are putting it all on the line here. Either they are going to change gaming forever, which some might argue has already happened, or they are going to fall hard.
Perhaps my feelings about the way Nintendo are developing entertainment for us, the mindless masses of core gamers, can be summed up by Miyamoto himself.
In recent years, I’ve really found that with this idea of applying the structure of video games in a variety of ways, I’ve found anything can be a video game, and I’ve found a greater degree creative freedom in what I want to do next and explore.
Perhaps Wii Dig wasn’t so far off after all.
Popularity: 1% [?]
To be honest, Nintendo can keep raking in the casual gamers all they want as long as they continue to deliver games like Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess every few years. Those two masterpieces are enough to make me shell out dough for every console they make.
It’s sad, but true and probably holds true for almost all Nintendo core gamers out there.
The only thing that worries me is are they going to go so far out of their normal territory trying to gather casual gamers that they abandon their franchise games? i.e. Miyamoto wasting time working on Wii Music instead of the next Zelda or Mario game. Based on his quote above, I’m starting to get worried that that may be the case.
@Yousty
I think you have become anethitized (sp?) to Nintendo, as have many of the Nintendo followers. While PS3 and 360 fanboys argue about how many quality titles are coming out each month, it seems many Nintendo fanboys (not saying you are one) tend to just speak of Mario and Zelda.
I personally love Zelda (Mario not so much any more), but I is really sad that Nintendo can create such a hit console but not deliver the stream of quality titles they need.
I love Miyamoto-san, I really do, but he is deluded if he thinks Wii Music is anything more than just a passing glance in a store to Nintendo Gamers.
The Legend of Zelda is the greatest video game series of all time to me, and Mario and Metroid still hold their own in this day and age, but it is ludicrous that Nintendo thinks they can release only one or two AAA games a year for the Wii and keep their audience. Nintendo shot themselves in the foot when they shortsightedly designed the Wii, a system that is technically on par with the first Xbox and lacks any form of serious storage method, as well as having an online service that is the worst in the industry. Nintendo’s a sinking ship, and they better do something quickly to save themselves, because this explosive success won’t last long. Even the most Hardcore Nintendo Gamers are going to have to open their eyes to truth. Nintendo has abandoned them.
It sucks being a Wii gamer. With a 360 or PS3 I could look forward to something cool. The only thing currently I’m looking forward to is the Wii port of Sonic Unleashed and No More Heroes 2. Nothing third party. On the other consoles, you have bucketloads of awesome AAA titles, on the Wii you’re lucky if you get one. It sucks being a Wii gamer!
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3820/npd_behind_the_numbers_september_.php?page=4
LTD Software Tie Ratios Through September 2008:
360: 8.1
Wii: 5.5
PS3: 5.3
” She goes on to explain: “As a system gets further along in its lifecycle and perhaps hardware sales start to diminish, the tie ratio tends to go up because software sales are the bigger draw.”
“If a hardware system is doing gangbuster sales, then the tie ratio can go down even if there are lots of overall sales.” “
I like Wii music. Does anybody remember those rhymes that were taught in the first few years of school, they are included into the game. As for the Wii, sure it does not have a lot of state of the art games but it has the most practical scene to look for new way to get buyers. The Wii can be used by anyone from the age of 2 to the age of 104 according to what I have seen. some of the audience is left out on other systems.
and it has the price reasonable Im not spending $150 on a guitar that delays so that I fail at the game
The whole “casuals vs. gamers” (the word “core” has about the same effect as a racial slur on my psyche whenever I hear it) debate has so many facets, but I think it all really boils down to one thing: I like fun games. I know that sounds like something Woody Allen or Beavis said, but it’s as true as it gets for me. Nintendo’s been diluting their classic franchises while creating “new”, hollow, and honestly, unoriginal games for… everyone else, I guess.
It’s not that I’m one of those shooter-and-gore-obsessed “hardcore gamers”. In fact, I much prefer mellow, easy-to-get games–that give me a challenge. What I want isn’t Wii Play and Endless Ocean and all that, but it’s also not Grand Theft Auto or Crackdown. It’s something that, slowly, is ceasing to exist: Inoffensive, fun, reasonably long, and challenging games.
Weirdest thing: the Wii Music commercial played on TV just as I read this…
Wii has plenty to look forward to:
The Conduit
Mad World
Tenchu 4
Animal Crossing
Pikmin 3
Kid Icarus?
F-Zero?
StarFox?
360:
Gears Of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Resident Evil 5
Screw PS3, and leave Wii alone though eh? Seriously a bunch of good games in under 2 years and we’re finally getting the third party support. 360 is still going strong too and I eagerly await Gears Of War 2 (Fallout 3 is pre-ordered :]) and Sony fanboys can keep comments to their self until PS3 passes the 360, if they can even do that.
(BRIZZLE // Oct 27, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Wii has plenty to look forward to:
The Conduit
Mad World
Tenchu 4
Animal Crossing
Pikmin 3
Kid Icarus?
F-Zero?
StarFox?
360:
Gears Of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Resident Evil 5
Screw PS3, and leave Wii alone though eh? Seriously a bunch of good games in under 2 years and we’re finally getting the third party support. 360 is still going strong too and I eagerly await Gears Of War 2 (Fallout 3 is pre-ordered :]) and Sony fanboys can keep comments to their self until PS3 passes the 360, if they can even do that.)
LOL:)
PaustinJ, if Nintendo is a sinking ship, it is because they have too many barrels of money holding them down. If they would just throw some overboard and have people develop great AAA titles minus the characters of Mario or Zelda, it would be fantastic
@multiman33
Exactly!
Nintendo needs to come up with some ORIGINAL ideas for ACTUAL games, not just a rehash of the last game.
Good little article and I agree with it. In fact Wii Music was the last nail in the coffin, and insult to us core gamers that I was willing to take. I’m in the process of selling all my Wii games and hardware.