I wish I could have a résumé like Shigeru Miyamoto. He’s the brains behind some classic video game legends such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Zelda. Man, just shine that in anyone’s faces and you’re gold. GameDaily BIZ fired some questions to Miyamoto about the success of his games and he replied with some interesting comments.
The first aspect of Miyamoto’s success is attributed to the fact that he rarely develops sequels to games that don’t take leaps and bounds over their predecessor; in other words, his sequels tend to be entirely new games and not just minor updates to the same formula.
"Well, if you look back at the Mario and Zelda series, we don’t really update those games until we have some type of new capability or technology to apply to them. We don’t take the same engine and just create a sequel. Every time we create a follow-up to a title, we rebuild the game, recreate its systems and create an entirely new game. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons we continue to innovate and do so well."
Miyamoto was also asked about the competition between Nintendo and rivals Sony and Microsoft. He contrasted Nintendo’s aim to appeal to a vast portion of the audience rather than appeal to just one demographic and ignore the others. This seems to be on the same track with some words he made back in August about appealing to the casual gamers.
"What they really haven’t done is attempt to expand beyond their core user base. Nintendo is looking at a much broader market. Our motto for some time has been to target people from ages 5 to 95 and everyone in-between – people will all types of interests. If we can really go after this mass market, and manage to create a meaningful impression, it’s better for the industry as a whole. Microsoft and Sony are doing the same things. We’re doing different things. And because of that, it’s not even a competition."
