Shigeru Miyamoto
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Miyamoto: Manpower for HD development was 'underestimated'
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto pointed to Nintendo's struggles in adapting to HD development when explaining the company's Wii U software timeline during a recent Q&A session with shareholders. "When it comes to the scale of software development, Wii U with HD graphics requires about twice the human resources than before," Miyamoto said. "We may have underestimated the scale of this change and as a result, the overall software development took more time than originally anticipated just as we tried to polish the software at the completion phase of development," he said. Miyamoto also discussed Pikmin 3, which will launch on August 4 in North America. The game was confirmed in 2008 for Wii before its development was moved to the Wii U. "We are almost out of this phase, and we are also trying to create something unique utilizing an easier development approach called 'Nintendo Web Framework,'" Miyamoto added. The Nintendo Web Framework was announced at GDC this year, and allows developers to use HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS to create Wii U apps.
Miyamoto unsure where to take F-Zero franchise
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto stalled hopes for a F-Zero return after saying he doesn't know which direction to take with the franchise. Speaking to IGN at E3, Miyamoto said there's "only so much capacity" within Nintendo's internal staff, where the next hypothetical entry would likely be developed. "I certainly understand that people want a new F-Zero game," Miyamoto told IGN. "I think where I struggle is that I don't really have a good idea for what's new that we could bring to F-Zero that would really turn it into a great game again. Certainly I can see how people looking at Mario Kart 8 could see, through the anti-gravity, a connection to F-Zero. But I don't know, at this point, what direction we could go in with a new F-Zero." Miyamoto added that, while Nintendo brought other developers to properties like Star Fox and F-Zero previously, the company would prefer to develop those series "internally" from now on. He also noted he's been trying to increase the company's internal staff to allow for more ongoing projects at any time. F-Zero Climax, released only in Japan in 2004, represents the last F-Zero game, but it's approaching ten years since the series' last major entry: F-Zero GX on the GameCube. Going by Miyamoto's comments, the best that can be hoped for now is Captain Falcon's return in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. - and even that, like the Cap, is up in the air.
Will Wright shares admiration for the three Ms: Miyamoto, Molyneux, Meier
Bespectacled brain Will Wright is one of the world's most revered game designers, both within the industry and in the more mainstream eye. But which game designers does he admire the most? Speaking at the Game Horizon conference in the UK via a video stream, Wright said he regards a great number of designers highly, including many up-and-comers. However, the Sims creator reserved special praise for three luminaries from his generation: Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux, and Sid Meier. Nintendo veteran Miyamoto was "obviously" Wright's first choice. "He always takes the player first," Wright said. "Right off the bat he works with the controller, what does it feel like, how tactile and kinesthetic is what he's working on. He works from the inside out: 'what is the first five second player experience?' So his games have this craftsmanship behind them that's amazing and unique." The feeling is mutual; a few years back, Miyamoto said he was particularly impressed by Wright as "a very unique person and someone very special." Aw.
Miyamoto: People will come to depend on second screen
"There was a period when we first released the Nintendo DS that people would say there's no way people can look at two screens at once," Shigeru Miyamoto told CNN. The DS was released in 2004, and slowly grew to sell over 153 million units worldwide (as of December 31)."I almost feel like, as people get more familiar with Wii U and these touchscreen interfaces, that there is going to come a point where they feel like 'I can't do everything I want to do if I don't have a second screen'." The trick, of course, is getting people familiar with Wii U, something Nintendo has yet to accomplish judging by hardware sales."I feel a device like Wii U, with its ability to continue to offer new features and that network connection and the connection to the TV and the interface, really makes it feel that it's more than just a game machine, but something that offers a lot of practical use and practical purpose in the living room," Miyamoto said.Miyamoto reiterated plans to update the firmware to make it "a little more stable, a little bit more convenient to use from a system standpoint." He's also working on figuring out how to "convey the usefulness of Wii U" to potential owners through games. "For me as a game developer, obviously I look at Wii U from the perspective of what games I can bring to Wii U."
Miyamoto working on Pikmin cartoons
Shigeru Miyamoto is working on translating the Pikmin series into animated shorts. The Nintendo executive showed one episode of his new project to Polygon last week. Olimar appears to be blending Pikmin into a delicious smoothie during the episode, but is actually blending up non-sentient carrots."When Olimar first discovered the Pikmin he named them based on the PikPik brand carrots in his home world, so he clearly loves carrots," Miyamoto said. "I thought it would be fun to have a scenario where it seems like he is going to eat the Pikmin. So it's kind of dark, but he doesn't eat them."The project comes from Miyamoto's desire to "give more life to the Pikmin characters," and is structured like brief 4-panel comics. The original episode and the Pikmin-themed logo animation recently shown in Japan's Toho theaters were made by Nintendo with the help of an animation studio.The Pikmin shorts will be released "sometime before the release of Pikmin 3," Miyamoto said, putting it somewhere in the first half of 2013. According to him, they may appear on the 3DS video service, or Nintendo may sell the shorts on the eShop.
Miyamoto: Wii U interface performance will be better by summer
"Please wait." That's our impression of the Wii U's user interface, and what you have to do to improve it. Speaking with Time, Shigeru Miyamoto said that "We think that by this summer, the system is going to be very much improved over how it's performing currently." He noted that interactions between various applications are more easily tested in the wild, "to understand how they're using those features and what they're doing as they're switching between them."A system update based on Nintendo's observations of user behavior and Wii U performance is due this spring. "What we want to do is make sure that when we release it, that we address as many of the different opinions about how people would like to see the system improve as we can at once. We hope to cover a wide range of requests while simultaneously ensuring it's a very stable update to the system."On its information page for the 105-3102 error code that has hit Japan, Nintendo says an update is due in April. Whether the update contains these upcoming UI fixes, or is just focused on fixing the error, is unclear. But it would line up with the "spring" timing of the performance update.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon skit sees Miyamoto clean up
You may have missed it amongst all the goings-on of the North American and European broadcasts, but last week's Nintendo Direct for Japan featured a cute little sketch which saw Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata get into the spirit of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.This week, Nintendo republished it for English-speaking viewers, extra useful since the video includes five minutes of Miyamoto talking about the upcoming 3DS game.
Nintendo to merge handheld and console divisions by next month
Nintendo plans to unite its console and handheld divisions by February 16, combining the two into a singular unit tasked with creating next-generation hardware. As reported by Nikkei, and then confirmed to Engadget by Nintendo, the combined unit will initially incorporate 150 handheld and 130 console engineers, and operate out of a new $340 million facility located just by the company's headquarters (pictured above) in Kyoto, with the facility due to be completed by the end of 2013.The move represents Nintendo's first major organizational restructuring in around a decade. In 2002, Satoru Iwata replaced Hiroshi Yamauchi as president of Nintendo, and initiated a move which saw the company's two Research & Development teams re-assigned into the Entertainment, Analysis, and Development division.Today's news follows speculation around Nintendo's restructuring plans which suggested Shigeru Miyamoto would retire from his position as Nintendo EAD boss, being replaced by EAD deputy manager Takashi Tezuka. In a 2011 interview, Miyamoto noted Nintendo ought to be "structured" to operate without him before he'd leave the company.
Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge goes to auction: $150,000 proves your loyalty to Hyrule (video)
And you thought that Nintendo World Championships gold cartridge would make a nice start to the retirement fund. An eBay auction from tjcurtin1 is offering a prototype NES cartridge for the US release of The Legend of Zelda at a Buy It Now price of $150,000, or roughly ten times more than the typical final bid that Price Charting quotes for a typical NWC cart. While it looks like an unassuming yellow chunk of plastic, it's actually a Nintendo of America copy from February 23, 1987 -- half a year before the definitive action adventure reached the US market. The game still plays and can even save its game on the still functional, industry-first battery backup. Just remember that it's not necessarily going to reveal any design secrets from Shigeru Miyamoto or Takashi Tezuka: the seller warns that he can't see any practical differences between the early copy and the (also included) shipping version. Anyone well-heeled enough to buy the prototype is therefore going solely for the collector's value. But for those determined to be the coolest kid on any block about 25 years late, there's only one way to go.
Miyamoto sees potential for museum guides to be a 'core business' for Nintendo
Nintendo's Audioguide Louvre, 3DS software designed to assist self-guided tours of the Louvre museum, may seem like a weird, random lark, but Shigeru Miyamoto is much more serious about the software than we thought."One big thing I recently handled is the Audioguide Louvre - Nintendo 3DS, referred to earlier in this meeting," Miyamoto told investors during a recent Q&A. "This has not made money yet, but it has the potential to be one of our core businesses in the future."Later, in a nod to the announcement, reaction to, and eventual retraction of the announcement of Miyamoto's eventual retirement, Miyamoto admonished the assembled shareholders. " I should be careful about telling you about these things and I would like to add that we are not announcing any concrete business plans here. I would also be glad if you carefully tell someone else about my remarks."
Miyamoto: Retro-developed Zelda 'not out of the question,' but studio is 'too busy'
Retro Studios recently worked on 2010's Wii game Donkey Kong Country Returns, and last year's Mario Kart 7. For the studio's future, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said it isn't out of the question for Retro to work on the Zelda franchise; however, the Austin-based developer is currently too busy to take on the series."In terms of them working on a Zelda, it's not out of the question, certainly, for them to work on an entire Zelda game amongst themselves," Miyamoto told IGN when asked about the Austin-based studio's current project. Miyamoto has said Retro is capable in the past, but added that geography would be an issue."Traditionally I think that the Zelda team has always had a close contact with anyone who's working on a Zelda game. If you were going to have that happen in the US at Retro, that would be kind of difficult for them to be able to coordinate." Miyamoto added that Retro is "too busy for that sort of thing right now" anyway, joking that he'd likely have to move to Texas – where Retro Studios is located – since a Zelda game requires his involvement, as well.Retro Studios is capable, but coordinating overseas with Kyoto would obviously be a big hurdle. "Retro is very busy right now, but I'm afraid I can't say exactly what it is," Miyamoto added. So either way, it looks like we can rule out that game being called The Legend of Zelda.
Nintendo's Miyamoto: we're focused on a 3DS sequel, not a refresh
Every gamer knows the Nintendo handheld routine: there's always one major new model followed by endless revisions as the console legend improves whatever was flaky in the original. Right? If so, Mario maker Shigeru Miyamoto may be breaking that streak. He tells IGN that he's "satisfied" with the 3DS' hardware and that current thought at Nintendo is swinging towards a true replacement. That puts at least a momentary damper on Nikkei's claims of an extra-large 3DS coming soon, but it's good news for gamers used to waiting several years between major platform generations. With Nintendo taking a bruising from smartphones and tablets, new hardware likely can't come quickly enough.
Pikmin 3 lacking online multiplayer because ... there are a bunch of Pikmin
Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console will be the company's most internet-enabled yet. Its Miiverse intends to greatly expand on the Wii's Mii Plaza, its Friend Codes will be "a lot simpler" than previous versions of Nintendo's online buddy system, and many of its retail games will also be available digitally. In that context, it's hard to understand why the Wii U's flagship first-party title, Pikmin 3, won't include online multiplayer."In the situation of Pikmin, for example, since you would have lots of individual, small creatures, the Pikmin, whose every movement and location is going to be really important in the game, it would be very difficult to sync up over an internet connection," Nintendo design lead Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN in a recent interview. While Miyamoto acknowledges that games like, say, Mario Kart Wii were online-enabled, it apparently wouldn't be possible with Pikmin 3 on Wii U.Mario Kart worked, he said, because Nintendo was able to make up for any dropped frames over an internet connection. The issues with Pikmin 3 going online are different, and apparently insurmountable. "Unfortunately, no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3," he said."But the co-op local multiplayer is really fun."
Nintendo 'hasn't decided' whether to remake A Link to the Past or Majora's Mask
Nintendo is wavering between remaking The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for 3DS and remaking Majora's Mask, Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN. "We haven't quite decided yet, whether we're going to do A Link to the Past, because there's also the possibility of doing a remake of Majora's Mask," Miyamoto said. "This is something we've certainly been talking about and doing a little bit of experimenting with, to figure out which way we're going to go."Miyamoto said that now that the company has the dual goals of expanding the 3DS audience and building up the Wii U library, "we have lots of good opportunities in terms of thinking about which Zelda game is going to be best for which purpose." That suggests that one of these remakes could end up as a Wii U release.
Shigeru Miyamoto on how the Wii U could change games
The Wii U is designed to enable new gaming experiences, through the combination of motion controls and a small, personal screen. At E3, Nintendo showed games that rely on "asymmetric gaming," or giving different players different experiences; it showed games that use the Wii U's new controller as a touchscreen interface for a game on the TV; and it showed games being played on the WiiPad for situations when the TV is in use.I wondered which of these would become the central message of the Wii U, the feature that would become emblematic of the system. For Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, it's none of those. "For me, personally, what's most important is the idea that when the family goes into the living room, that the first screen they'll interact with will be the Wii U screen," Miyamoto told me in an interview directly following Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference. "Whether they're doing that for social elements, or for watching television, or for games, that to me is the most important element of this new Wii hardware."
Miyamoto designing a new game, but it'll be a while
Shigeru Miyamoto told me during an E3 interview that he's working on a new game of his own, when his other job of being a very important executive allows it."One thing I want to clear up," Miyamoto told Joystiq, "people like to ask me if I want to do a small project with a small team. I do like working with a small team, and I'm working with a number of small teams on a lot of different ideas, but the problem is because of all these different roles that I have to fulfill, it takes me a long time to write the design document." In addition, working with small teams causes design work to take longer, he said, so "maybe this time next year I'll have something ready to show you that perhaps will illustrate that idea."Miyamoto confirmed directly that he's working on design documents right now. "I have some storyboards that I have to draw before I finish this trip," he added. "It's fun. I use Flipnote Studio to draw my storyboards."
Miyamoto's DS patent offers upgraded tourist hunting techniques
The DS Lite could see society's next great advancement in GPS technology, at least in tourist-heavy areas such as museums and haunted-home expeditions, a patent from Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto suggests.The patent describes a system where an overhead grid of infrared "positional information transmitters" reads a user's DS to light up floor patterns and potential walkways. The user can then pick which route he'd like to take, reading tourist facts along the way.Nintendo has already infiltrated the museum scene with the 3DS giving guided tours in the Louvre, and it's doing a pretty great job, from what we hear. There's no guarantee that a patent will translate to an actual product, but the thousands of infrared beams hovering over the Mona Lisa fulfills a few of our own spy fantasies, so we'll hope this one works out in some way.
Miyamoto equates Vita's bumpy start with that of the 3DS
Nintendo head of production Shigeru Miyamoto is a swell guy. How do we know? When baited with a chance to badmouth Sony's Vita, he chose diplomacy – even comparing its launch to the rocky launch of Nintendo's 3DS – over the usual corporate chest-pouding we're used to reading. "When we launched the 3DS hardware, we didn't have Super Mario 3D Land, we didn't have Mario Kart 7, we didn't have Kid Icarus: Uprising," Miyamoto told Edge in a recent interview. "We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren't able to deliver them at that time," he admitted.And though Nintendo "were kind of hoping that people would, nevertheless, buy into the product," it was quickly clear that wouldn't be the case. The resultant price drop and subsequent release of the aforementioned titles helped the 3DS build steam, and Miyamoto sees the same scenario playing out for Sony. "It's obviously a very hi-spec machine, and you can do lots of things with it. But I don't really see the combination of software and hardware that really makes a very strong product," he added.Sony's PlayStation Vita retails for a minimum of $250 currently – the same price the 3DS debuted at – and has at least two notable first-party releases on the horizon for North America: Sound Shapes and Gravity Rush. Sony's latest Vita numbers put the system at over 2 million sold worldwide as of late Feburary this year.[Image credit: Edge]
Nintendo patent application tech tracks your DS from above, serves as tour guide
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.
Miyamoto promises Pikmin reveal at E3 2012
In addition to a new Mario, Nintendo is bringing at least one more Nintendo game to E3. Shigeru Miyamoto has been discussing a new Pikmin game for some time, and we may finally get a first glimpse of it during this year's annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Miyamoto confirmed that Nintendo is finally ready to unveil the next entry in the series. A Nintendo representative offered additional comments to Game Informer, stating that Miyamoto thinks "anyone who has played Pikmin games in the past will enjoy playing."
