Engadget

Nintendo patent application tech tracks your DS from above, serves as tour guide

Jon Fingas — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:47:00 EST

Nintendo is already guiding you through the Louvre with a 3DS, but a newly published US patent application takes that kind of tourism to a very literal new level. Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto's concept describes a way to direct lost tourists by beaming position information through an overhead grid of infrared transmitters to a mobile device (portrayed as a DS Lite) held by the confused visitor below. The handheld then talks wirelessly to a server that lights up floor displays with maps and directions, and a helpful app on the device lets visitors pick their route while they read up on sightseeing tips. Like with any patent, there's no certainty that Nintendo will act on the idea and start wiring up museums with IR blasters, but the January 2012 patent may still be fresh in a frequently inventive mind like Miyamoto's.

Nintendo patent application tech tracks your DS from above, serves as tour guide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shigeru Miyamoto profiled: legendary game designer, interior decorating enthusiast

Ross Miller — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:42:00 EST

Using traditional conversion metrics, The New Yorker's got ten pictures worth of words on Nintendo's iconic designer Shigeru Miyamoto, arguably the father of modern video games whose cerebral impulses have spawned the likes of Mario and Legend of Zelda. Don't expect any bombshell news (spoiler: the company's hard at work on a portable, glasses-free 3D console), but it's definitely a thorough and entertaining read on the origins of Nintendo's gaming interests and Miyamoto himself. Bonus: given how Miyamoto's non-work time with exercise and gardening became the inspiration for WiiFit and Pikmin, feel free to overanalyze how his fixation with moving around his living room will turn into the next multi-platinum title.

Shigeru Miyamoto profiled: legendary game designer, interior decorating enthusiast originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo's Miyamoto says Miis could make the jump to the 3DS

Donald Melanson — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:41:00 EST

Nintendo already dropped a hint that Miis could be heading to the 3DS by including some Mii-like characters in the Pilotwings demo at E3 last month, and Shigeru Miyamoto himself has now offered some further confirmation that Nintendo is at least looking at the possibility. Speaking with IGN this week, he says that it is "something that we're definitely giving consideration to," and that Nintendo wants to "continue to try to allow people to use their Miis on different Nintendo systems going forward." While that's not quite a complete confirmation, it definitely sounds like your Mii could be with you for a long time to come.

Nintendo's Miyamoto says Miis could make the jump to the 3DS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miyamoto says that Wii is 'honored' to be in such great company as Move and Natal

Joseph L. Flatley — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:50:00 EST

While Sony might be doing its best to heat things up with its Wii-baiting "realistic movements" ad campaign, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is taking the high road. Elaborating on recent comments that he made about the threat posed by rival motion controllers (or lack thereof), the elder statesman, whose career stretches back to the beginnings of the video game industry and includes everything from Donkey Kong to The Legend of Zelda and beyond (don't forget Nintendogs), said that "[c]ompeting with other companies" in a specific product category was "never our top priority." Rather, the company will continue to do what it does best: creating "unique and unprecedented entertainment." So how does he feel about PS Move, then? "The user experience we have created is going to be intensified by the advent of new machines from other companies. It's a new experience that we originated. So we really see it as a great honor." Class act, that guy. We'll see how he feels when we beat him to market with our Engadget Vitality Sensor.

Miyamoto says that Wii is 'honored' to be in such great company as Move and Natal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo's Miyamoto casually references new hardware, MotionPlus games

Vlad Savov — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:37:00 EST

Do you think non-disclosure agreements apply if you're one of the guys who built the company you represent? Probably not, as evidenced by Shigeru Miyamoto, who recently took the opportunity -- while receiving an award, no less -- to blab about forthcoming hardware and games based around the MotionPlus peripheral. There wasn't much content to his mentions, beyond us now knowing that he's actively engaged in the design of multiple games outside of the next Zelda iteration, but this is the firmest confirmation yet that the Wii is set for a Wiiplacement. Parsing this with earlier comments from Miyamoto-san would suggest the company will be looking to optimize its present formula (maybe with a touch of HD?) rather than revolutionize what is already a wildly successful console. Until then, let's just be happy that one of gaming's patriarchs is still going strong and dropping crumbs of knowledge for us undeserving earthlings.

Nintendo's Miyamoto casually references new hardware, MotionPlus games originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo's Miyamoto: next-gen Wii hardware could be "more compact, cost-efficient"

Darren Murph — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:19:00 EST

There ain't much to glean from Shigeru Miyamoto's recent sit-down with Popular Mechanics, but in the never-ending quest to learn more about Nintendo's next-generation Wii, a few tidbits of interest have been highlighted. Miyamoto, who is responsible for creating the likes of Mario and Zelda (amongst others), spoke at length about current titles, the future of video games as a whole and on his view of the not-yet-named Wii 2. In answering a question about the future of motion-sensing in the Big N's consoles, he ran off topic a bit and noted that "it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient" when speaking about future hardware (which honestly may have been talking strictly about accelerometers). Of course, this is about as predictable as it gets -- hardware tends to always shrink and get cheaper as technology improves -- but hey, there it is! Now, let your imaginations do what they were born to do.

[Via TechRadar]

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Nintendo's Miyamoto: next-gen Wii hardware could be "more compact, cost-efficient" originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo promises 'very creative ideas' for Vitality Sensor, declines to name any

Joseph L. Flatley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:18:00 EST

The kids at the Mercury-News have just had a sit-down with our old pal Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's legendary head of game development, for a chat about the recession, game controllers, and trust. The company's plan for dealing with the ebbs and flows of the international economy is simple: "We're really just concentrating on creating something that people want... something the whole family will use." Does that include the admittedly silly Vitality Sensor? Of course: "[A]ny sort of changes to interface that allows people to get into games and enjoy games is a great trend." Any clues as to the exciting new forms of gameplay this Vitality Sensor will provide? "I don't have any indication for you (of what we have in the works) other than to say that we have lots of very creative ideas." It looks like we'll just have to trust the man with the sword for the time being.

[Via Joystiq]

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Nintendo promises 'very creative ideas' for Vitality Sensor, declines to name any originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miyamoto "not worried at all" about Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers

Nilay Patel — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:08:00 EST

Sony and Microsoft certainly turned the motion-sensing heat up on Nintendo at E3 last week, but it doesn't seem like Shigeru Miyamoto is all that concerned at the moment -- he just told the BBC that while he's "flattered" his competitors are "moving in the same direction," he's "not worried at all" about Project Natal or the Playstation motion controller because "they don't have the type of depth that we're able to provide with Wii Motion Plus." Snap. We don't know about that -- we certainly haven't been blown away by Motion Plus -- but we can see why Nintendo's not sweating it just yet: the Wii's a runaway hit and a pop-culture phenomenon, while Natal and the PSMC are still tech demos without announced ship dates or even final names. That said, it's clear that Microsoft and Sony don't intend to just cede this space to Mario and Co., so we'll see how Nintendo fights back -- we'll tell you right now that the Wii Vitality Sensor ain't gonna cut it.

[Via Joystiq]

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Miyamoto "not worried at all" about Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros. Wii could be better, but the Wii's too weak

Darren Murph — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:31:00 EST

Look, it's no secret that the Wii is comparatively weak. It always has been, and unless some magical, unicorn-approved firmware update hits in the near future, it always will be. The Big N's Shigeru Miyamoto sat down at E3 this year with GameDaily and confessed as much, stating that he "would like to use Wii Speak more, but [in Super Mario Bros. Wii], the Wii processor is already being taxed." He added that this was all "part of being a developer to work with the tools you have to create new and interesting projects," but it certainly makes us wonder just how much more awesome this console could be with a specifications list fit for this millennium. Ah well, maybe we can actually look forward to native 1080p games from Nintendo next decade... if we're lucky.

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Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros. Wii could be better, but the Wii's too weak originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joystiq Video: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview

Christopher Grant — Fri, 12 May 2006 21:50:00 EST

If you haven't already read the transcript of our interview with the inimitable Shigeru Miyamoto, we've gone to all the trouble of putting video of it online. Get his thoughts on everything from the Wii to the PS3's new controller, why the HD-era isn't quite here yet, and why the interface is where innovation is coming from.

Unfortunately, we're wrapping things up, preparing for the trip home from E3, so we didn't have time to cut this video up into bitesized chunks for you as of yet, however, we are working on a bittorrent feed of it and will be adding the bits and pieces soon. Until then, right-click and save the 542.2MB file.

Our very large video:
542.2MBs, 25:25 long, 480x360 3ivx Quicktime [link]

Make sure you also check out AOL Games' video interview with Miyamoto.

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Joystiq Video: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 May 2006 21:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!)

Ryan Block — Thu, 11 May 2006 20:08:00 EST

When we found out Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to give us a second round to ask him about the latest in the world of Nintendo here at E3, I found that same inner-child fanboy Peter reminisced about when we last interviewed him start to emerge. Suddenly I wanted to play all those games I grew up on again, but we had to know how he thinks the Wii is going to change the future of gaming. Vlad Cole and I somehow managed to pull ourselves together long enough to ask him about whether the sedentary gaming world is ready for full-body frenetic gameplay, how he's influencing the next generation of Nintendo games and game designers, the media agendas of the 360 and PlayStation 3, and even a little on HD gaming.

So, thank you very much for meeting with us, I really appreciate it. The Wii represents a major step forward for Nintendo in terms of functionality and capabilities. One of the things we're really curious to know is what Wii is going to enable you as a game maker to create that you've never been able to create before.

Well, I think the greatest strength of the Wii is that it allows you to create games that are very intuitive and very easy to pick up and play, such that people who've never played a video game before can easily pick up the controller and start playing. And that's kind of the concept behind the games like Tennis and Golf and Baseball and the Wii Sports Series, and these are really kind of the very basic games that we're looking at doing.

And then of course thinking about the types of games that the gamers have come to know and play over the years, the unique features of the Wii controller, such as the direct pointing device on the Wii Remote will allow gamers to now more directly interact with the types of game screens that they've seen, where they're pointing directly at a place on screen to interact with it.

Is there a type of game that even now you still can't or for whatever reason create?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I don't really have any ideas that stew in my brain for long periods of time. I really just focus on what I'm working on at the moment.

The one thing that I have been thinking about for a long time is this problem we've had with 3D games, where as we've been making 3D games, 3D worlds and the control schemes have becomes so complicated. People who don't play games can't easily jump into those interactive worlds and experience them. And I think we've been able to overcome some of that difficulty with the functionality of the Wii controller. So now as we go forward and create software I have to continue to think of ideas of how to take advantage of that to overcome that barrier.

Continue reading The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!)

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The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 May 2006 20:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TIME gets hands-on with the Nintendo Wii

Evan Blass — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:43:00 EST

We knew we should have taken that call from Miyamoto the other day, but our loss was TIME magazine's gain, because the Mario and Zelda creator was looking for someone to, wouldn't you know it, take the upcoming Wii for a little spin. TIME's five page article is so full of interesting deets that we barely have room to scratch the surface here, but suffice it to say that Lev Grossman not only reports on his hands-on experiences with a number of games, he's also able to get inside Nintendo's head, if you will, and tease out a bit of the methodology behind what some hardcore gamers perceive as the company's madness (Wii? those controllers? Nintendogs?). As for the actual gaming, Grossman got to play some tennis (the sensors even allow you to add spin), slay some dragons (brandishing the controller like a sword in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and bring those wacky Warioware minigames into the third dimension (think: fishing, weight lifting, cooking, etc.). Geez, this thing sounds like so much fun that we may just skip the Sony keynote this afternoon and see if the folks from Nintendo will let us play with their goodies.

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TIME gets hands-on with the Nintendo Wii originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 May 2006 15:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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