Ahh, another Shigeru Miyamoto interview. You cannot have too many of those! Unlike most articles, this one we will go through backwards.
Let’s run the story from bottom top. Here we go!
With Sony and Microsoft’s ventures on the horizon, Nintendo will be desperate for its success.
You know the reason why I am so good about talking about the business of Nintendo? It isn’t because I am smart, it is because I am not an absolute moron. You have to be insanely stupid to write the sentence above.
1) Sony and Microsoft’s controllers are not on any horizon. There is no release date. There is no price. There is no freaking software.
2) Desperation would be on the other side. Nintendo Wii sales are in a very comfortable lead position. It is clear the 360 and PS3 will not be catching up to Wii this generation.
3) Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort were unveiled a year before Sony or Microsoft unveiled their motion controllers.
It doesn’t matter if Nintendo has upended the status quo as Miyamoto upends tea tables. It doesn’t matter if Nintendo is market leader. Still, no matter what happens, Nintendo is somehow ‘doomed’, somehow in ‘trouble’. It is fascinating to watch. You have to wonder what goes on in these people’s minds.
A subtle depth and nuance of control will appeal to the so-called “hard-core” gaming audience, but the impressive advancement Motion Plus offers should capture the imagination for people falling for Wii Sports all over again.
This guy doesn’t understand the ‘hardcore’. They think motion controls are pure evil. Motion Plus is like Evil Plus to them. They even have problems with Sony and Microsoft motion controls.
With a large part of Nintendo’s “expanded audience” perhaps not aware of Motion Plus before it reached the shelves a few weeks ago, Wii Sports Resort has a tough act to pull off. Not least will be the possibility of leaving some consumers confused over why they need Motion Plus, or exactly what it does.
People become aware of what is going on with the Wii through house parties. How else is Wii Fit still selling so well? What was the old Nintendo slogan? Playing is believing? Once they play it, they will understand as happened before.
“Also, it was not technically feasible for the technology to be realised with such a compact size. The fact we are now being able to sell Motion Plus at this price, at this size, is the result of technological advancements in the field of microelectro-mechanical systems, which took place after Wii launched.”
This actually is true.
People really were forgetting how things were back in 2006. The Wii was considered a major risk. No one thought the Wii would succeed. Nintendo made the classic controller as a type of contingency plan in cast the motion controller was rejected.
To say that the Wii should have been bundled with Motion Plus from the beginning is like saying the Wii should have been bundled with the Balance Board from the beginning. Motion Plus has more in common with the Balance Board than with the Wii-Mote. Both are peripherals. Both are poised to be new ‘platforms’ within the Wii that games can utilize.
“It’s a continuous evolution. Not all the Wii software requires Motion Plus, so it is appropriate for us to position it as a peripheral,”
Just like the Balance Board.
Miyamoto understands this feeling, but doesn’t necessarily agree. “It’s natural, but many people tend to focus only upon the motion sensing technologies of Wii,” he says.
And this is one of the quotes of the year. Seriously. Wii is far more than just ‘motion controls’. But SHHHHH. Don’t tell Microsoft and Sony.
This quote should be posted again and again to wake people up that the success of the Wii is more than “motion control technology”. I know, this is an effort in vain. You would have thought that a wild success of a console from left field would have had people to re-examine their premises. But nope, they continue saying the same errors. “Durrr, it is all in the technology, durrrrr, if I put in better technology, I will get da sales, durrrr….”
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to argue that, despite the console’s unprecedented success, the potential for Wii has thus far gone unfulfilled. Despite the console hosting a catalogue of excellent games –such as Super Mario Galaxy, Little King’s Story and No More Heroes – Wii Sports has yet to be surpassed as the best use of the Wii’s motion-control capabilities.
I firmly agree with this as well. The Wii Momentum is tied entirely to user experiences with new ways of playing, in this case, motion controls. Wii Fit is a good example of this. People were looking for games that had controls, at least, as good as Wii Sports. No one delivered. While Wii Fit stoked the momentum fires, the momentum just languished. Worse, Nintendo put out way too many games that were not using the Wii platform properly (Wii Music, Animal Crossing Wii, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, etc.). None of those fired up the Wii momentum.
BTW, when was the last time Nintendo has added a new ‘channel’ or used the 24/7 feature? Exactly.
“At the time we were still marketing Nintendo GameCube – home consoles in general were utilising new technology in the pursuit of more photorealism in gaming,” says Shigeru Miyamoto, pre-eminent industry expert and general manager of Nintendo’s entertainment analysis and development division.
Miyamoto is differentiating that increase in graphical realism was the path of the Gamecube and clearly says Nintendo is on a different path. This is yet example #46534563 of why Wii HD will not appear. Woe to Pachter.
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