Miyamoto Interviews> September 3rd 2000, Bits

Aleks: Thank you very much for coming.

Miyamoto: You’re welcome.

Aleks: We’re here with Shigeru Miyamoto, Managing Director and designer of some of the most famous games, Nintendo games, in the world; creator of Donkey Kong, creator of Mario, creator of Zelda – everything. And we just wanted to ask a few questions. First of all, what do you see as the future of computer games?

Miyamoto: For a first question that’s very tough. We are seeing interactive entertainment which is actually unprecedented in history. In other words we just cannot predict what the future is like, and because we don’t understand the future it’s so interesting.

Aleks: With your current up and coming next generation console, the Game Cube, do you expect that you’ll expand your computer games output, that you’ll be putting more games out for the public?

Miyamoto: Now that we are working on the three-dimensional machines it’s very convenient for us to simulate the actual three-dimensional world. Having said that however, the three-dimensional machines we have so far been working on have some problems that means that we creators have to put so much energy into realising the 3D engine itself. But with the Game Cube it’s now becoming very, very easy. As if you were making two-dimensional games we can make three-dimensional games utilising the Game Cube’s performances, so we now have the field set up for the three-dimensional environment. The remaining point is just what we should do on the creative side. In other words, we creators are now given the opportunity to freely make our dreams come true, so I’m looking forward to making great games.

Aleks: And many hopefully as well. Nintendo has certainly been in the family, public market for at least fifteen years or so as far as I am concerned, having had a Nintendo Entertainment system in the beginning. Yet as I’ve grown older I’ve found myself still playing Nintendo games. How will you in the future keep people who have been playing for so long interested in this console?

Miyamoto: Yes, it’s a very good comment. But it’s not how to maintain these kind of customer bases but rather important to note the kind of tradition now. Parents used to complain about videogames but now those who have played videogames in their youth are becoming parents themselves right now. In other words, they have a certain understanding about videogames and I think that they are now willing to play with their children, so videogames can now become more like family entertainment and we creators have to think about what we can do in those circumstances, what kind of games or entertainment we should provide them with. That’s going to be very important. And we are now ready to work on making the entertainment in terms of the family circumstances.

Aleks: So do you expect to expand the subject matter of the games with family entertainment in order to bring the parents in as well as the kids?

Miyamoto: I myself as a parent now am often playing videogames with my children and if I am going to buy videogames I’m often thinking what videogames I am tempted to buy for my kids. I think that kind of angle or perspective is very important when we are making the videogames. As your example, Nintendo’s new generation of consoles, Game Cube and Game Cube Advance, they can be connected very easily. Talking about the Game Cube itself, the controller is designed so that even small children can handle it easily and the disc is small so that even small children can have it without touching the surface of the disc. And also the Game Cube console has been designed so it is so compact with a handle on it so you can bring it from a children’s room to the parents’ rooms. These kinds of concepts have already been programmed into the design of Game Cube.

Aleks: And my final question, as the other two continue, is how do you feel about creating one of the best loved, the most famous games characters in the world, Mario?

Miyamoto: I really feel that I was lucky. I really don’t feel that my drawing itself gave that much to the audiences, it’s simply that the game was interesting, so the character and the character’s personality followed, that’s all. And I really wish that in my life from now I could make a second or third Mario.

<< Back to Miyamoto Interviews