Here is an email as evidence that people tend to project themselves onto Miyamoto.
You can trash Miyamoto as much as you wish, even for good reason,
Let me stop you there. Applying the same standards any business would give to someone within a company is ‘trashing’? Unless we genuflect and declare Miyamoto to be some sort of ‘god’, that is ‘trashing’?
I want to know why this guy is allowed to not only be selfish but to prevent products from being made that would sell Nintendo’s hardware. The numero uno example is the suspension of 2d Mario for nearly two decades. That would be bad enough, but he is given resources to undergo some personal vendetta to make all those 2d Mario customers buy 3d Mario. 3d Mario games are not cheap to make. And they don’t sell. Yet, here he is working on the fifth one (the third one within five years).
Here is an example of the absurdity: Pikmin 3. Pikmin 3 is an expensive game to make. It will not sell any hardware and won’t sell much in software. If Pikmin 1 and 2 didn’t do anything, why would 3? So why is Pikmin 3 even being made at all? It shouldn’t be. All the precious developers’ time and money should go to making software that does sell hardware.
The reason why Pikmin 3 is being made is because Miyamoto put his foot in his mouth. At E3 2008, reeling from a backlash, Miyamoto in an interview wanted to say something that would please people. So he decided, on his own, to announce Pikmin 3. That is the only reason why this game is being made.
A real company would force Miyamoto to backtrack. Almost ridiculously, Nintendo is going ahead to make the game so Miyamoto does not become embarrassed. This is not the behavior of a business. This is the behavior of a royal court.
but he is also the man behind hit titles such as Nintendogs, WiiSports or WiiFit.
But he isn’t the man behind them. Miyamoto’s role is that of a manager, not as a director. It is time to end the notion that every game from Nintendo comes from Miyamoto because that isn’t true. Emails I’ve gotten from former Nintendo employees tell me how Miyamoto keeps getting credited for other people’s work. Why? It is because Miyamoto is, in great part, the company mascot. Almost a company symbol.
While we do not know the details of what goes on inside Nintendo, we do know this for sure: Mario and Zelda franchises are controlled entirely by Miyamoto. No mainline Mario or Zelda game gets made without his approval. So why did 18 years go by before another Super Mario Brothers game was made? Because the guy is a jerk. Why is a brand new 3d Mario, which has never been made before on handheld, the priority instead of the 20 million seller plus of 2d Mario? Why is the Tanooki Suit, which fans have been wanting back, only going back in this handheld 3d Mario? The answer is that the guy is a jerk. Still don’t believe me? He knows there is great interest in a more old school type Zelda, something similar to Link to the Past. His response? “How about making Link to the Past with 3d output?” That is a jerk response.
Miyamoto is a genius,
I have met real geniuses both in science, engineering, and in entertainment. You’d be surprised at some of these people, some famous names you know, and some who are not famous. Miyamoto is a nobody compared to these people. Video games are an entertainment form that is the work of many people. This Miyamoto myth only distorts that the video game making process is the fruit of some ‘visionary’. This is why I believe the ‘Game God’ myth is the most destructive thing to occur in gaming. It is why all these young people throw themselves at the Game Industry, all expecting to become the next Miyamoto because they, too, wish to become a god. This ‘Game God’ myth has destroyed many young people’s lives as they throw away their careers and good sense to ‘be visionary’ with a game that doesn’t sell.
but at the same time he is extremely lazy. He is like that talented kid, who can achieve so much, yet he will rather play video games. As long as he is not pressured, he will just do whatever he wants.
I can understand him, I used to be (and to some extent still am) like him.
I am sorry, emailer, but you are nothing like Miyamoto. Why are you projecting yourself on him?
I breezed through school without ever having to study hard, yet I ended up being the best student in both physics and chemistry (probably math too, but there was no prize for math) and one of the best overall.
That is not like Miyamoto at all. According to Miyamoto, based on Nintendo’s high standard of hiring, Miyamoto would never be hired at Nintendo today.
But once I entered university it hit me hard, and I had to actually sit down and study. And for some bizarre reason it felt good to finally be challenged.
Assuming you are an American, this is not unusual but common among all kids. American high school is four years where nothing happens, kinda like the Carter Administration.
I don’t know if you are in college or not, but college kids cannot understand that college, itself, is nonsense compared to the real world. Like high school, college is a sanctuary away from the real world.
The same way Miyamoto’s games turn out best when he is pressured. It might explain why Super Mario Galaxy (which was a great effort) feels better than Galaxy 2 (which is just more of the same).
Yes, I’m sure everything about Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 was made by Miyamoto. The rest of the team didn’t do anything except Miyamoto’s marching orders. (Note to any hardcore gamer reading this who might have trouble understanding, this was sarcasm.)
New Super Mario Bros. was simply… well, just a new Super Mario Bros. game, not THE new Super Mario Bros. game.
Miyamoto wasn’t involved in NSMB DS.
When Mario 5 was made, it was made with the intention to be Mario 5, to get back the 2D Mario gamers. Nintendogs, WiiSport and WiiFit were not made because Miyamoto felt like doing so, they were made to aggressively expand gaming. When Miyamoto made Donkey Kong he was making it to get a job, not for fun (when an indy developer makes a game today, they do it for fun, art or whatever).
One can trash a person like Sakamoto, who never actually made something on his own that could stand the test of the market, but Miyamoto has proven himself to be capable of great achievements when he has to.
Yes, let us talk about the great Miyamoto achievements. Let us talk about Wii Music and other latter Wii games that imploded the Wii. Let us talk about the 3DS which he helped designed and managed the direction of the 3DS software. How are those 3DS sales going BTW? Let us talk about how Nintendo’s video game history is that of decline from the NES until the Wii. Let us talk about Wind Waker. Let us talk about Super Mario Sunshine. Let us talk about 3d Mario.
The handheld line did not suffer decline… until Miyamoto got involved with the 3DS. Who is largely responsible for the handheld line? That would be Gunpei Yokoi. He invented the D-Pad. He made the Gameboy. He over saw many Nintendo games including the Gameboy Mario games and Metroid I, II, and III. Yokoi was also very pivotal in Nintendo transforming into a toy business.
So he was fired (or let go) after making the Virtual Boy. I don’t know what went on there. Nintendo is not giving any details. But I do know this. Yokoi was treated like a man and not as a god. Gods don’t get fired.
So why does Miyamoto get treated by entirely different standards, from both inside Nintendo and from fans like yourself, than from people who have done much for the company like Yokoi?
Miyamoto has lived a charmed life. It is time to bring him down to Earth. Not just for Nintendo’s sake, not just for our sake, but for gaming’s sake. Twenty years ago, Miyamoto was not a ‘god’. I knew of him. But Nintendo did not use him as some ‘game god’ persona.
As for the question why Miyamoto does not get the axe: Well, aside from the above, take a look how he got his job in the first place. It was his father who asked Yamauchi for a favour. For what we know this might actually be the reason why he has been with Nintendo all this time. Miyamoto never had to worry about what to do next; when he graduated his father got him a job. I wish my father could do that, but he couldn’t even get me a job as janitor. Sure, Miyamoto deserved his place considering what a success Donkey Kong turned out to be, but my point is that Miyamoto did not have to search for an opportunity, he just had to grab it.
In other words, he’s lived a very charmed life.
Worship the games, not the people. We play games, we don’t play Miyamoto.
Have you ever wondered why we haven’t heard of ‘another Miyamoto’ from Nintendo? How long has it been? Thirty years? Forty? Certainly in all this time, Nintendo could acquire other great talent. With all the wealth and success Nintendo had since then, Nintendo should be able to get talent easily. So where is this other Miyamoto?
And why is the current old man, Miyamoto, hogging all the oxygen? All the old man does is just make 3d Mario and puzzle games with a Zelda skin. Why not present other people? “But Malstrom, there was Sakamoto.” OK, someone who wasn’t from the 8-bit Generation?
I’ve been looking to find out who that ‘young man’ was who came up with the Wii-mote. Or that ‘young man’ (could it be the same one?) who decided to go 3d for Nintendo’s new handheld. Iwata never told us this young man’s identity.
Investors have been wondering this as well. Now, the real reason why Nintendo keeps using Miyamoto as a spokesman is because gamers, the industry, and investors trust him. (I do not trust him.) There is a reason why whenever Nintendo criticizes one of their competitors, they make Miyamoto say the words.
And yes, Miyamoto does actually believe he is a genius. He says he is like Hitchcock. But Hitchcock’s movies led to movies becoming a mass medium. Miyamoto’s games, on average, do the opposite. Despite population growth and new territories, Mario and Zelda are less popular than they were during the 80s.
But wait, I am ‘trashing’ Miyamoto there, aren’t I emailer? I suspect someone would say that if they link the emotions they have to Nintendo’s games to Miyamoto personally. But the reason why games are fun is largely because of you. Look how you are projecting your own personality and life onto Miyamoto, someone you probably have never met.
For the readers wondering what is going on, there is method to my madness.
Why is Nintendo abandoning the direction of the DS and Wii (as Iwata stated) to do something completely different?
It is because the hardware development is controlled by the software developers.
So why are the software developers allowed to do something this ridiculous? The answer: “Because Miyamoto is a genius.”
My response and solution: fire the verbal arrows at ‘Miyamoto is a genius’.
I don’t think people have groked that Nintendo has decided to abandon the path of the DS and Wii. “I’ve made those games before,” Miyamoto would say, “I do not want to make them again.” So these Wii customers are going to find themselves abandoned without a console next generation. Sure, there might be some sort of Wii Sports type game but it will be from a third party, from a second party, or a hasty non-effort game from a few NCL developers. It will be like Donkey Kong Country to satisfy 2d Mario fans (which is Nintendo’s core audience).
What I’m pointing out is that Nintendo has done this before. Super Mario Brothers was, and is, perhaps the most successful video game of all time. And Nintendo drops it like a hot potato because Miyamoto doesn’t feel like making it. OK, let someone else in the company make it. But Miyamoto prevents that from occurring as well.
The center of this cancer that keeps eating away Nintendo’s core market is the ‘must do something new everytime’ mentality. And the person who seems most prominent in enforcing that mentality onto the rest of the company is Miyamoto due to some emotions he had with Star Wars when he was a kid.
I’m not happy about being left from game consoles twenty years ago. Now that I came back with the DS and Wii, I see Nintendo doing it all over again.
Miyamoto being declared a ‘genius’ or a ‘god’ has meant the end of gaming for me. So it is logical that someone, like myself, who does not want my gaming days to end, to declare Miyamoto not a ‘genius’ and not a ‘god’. Maybe then he will actually make games that sell to the masses (that I desire) instead of niche products that don’t sell (which is what he desires).
I want to play. Why not make games for people like me?
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