Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's golden boy, is on a very important errand. Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, Link, "Pikmin" and, in many ways, Nintendo itself, is out giving interviews in an attempt to drum up interest in the waning Wii U. His words, for better or worse, are the closest insight into what Nintendo is thinking during the company's trying times.
Thankfully, his words can be pretty kooky sometimes. Because it's a PR campaign, Miyamoto seems incapable of speaking in negative terms. We get it. We're going to evaluate some of the expected, the radical, the deluded and the totally-out-in-left-field statements he's made during this junket.
"There used to be particular activities that you would perform on your computer, like browsing the Internet, and you would have these different functionalities or features that you would use different devices for. But with Wii U and the Wii U Gamepad you can now bring these together in one device, and I think that's ultimately going to make your TV, when it's connected to Wii U, a more useful thing in the household."
We've heard this said quite a bit, but Nintendo and Miyamoto keep repeating it despite smartphones and tablets having already won that war. Smart TVs were a failure because nobody wants to do anything but watch TV and Netflix on the big screen. Everything else, like sharing, browsing, communicating and looking at hilarious pictures of cats are relegated to our phones. That's not going to change, even in the living room, so Nintendo needs to move on.
On Wii U Interface Issues:
"Even during the testing phase, it's difficult to ascertain what facets of those interactions between the applications are resulting in inconveniences for the consumer until you have an opportunity for many people and lots of consumers to try these features out - to understand how they're using those features and what they're doing as they're switching between them."
This is interesting because it shows Nintendo is adopting a fairly modern technique in development. It's called a beta test, and if you threw the word beta on the Wii U's home screen, just like Google does with half their products, you probably wouldn't have encountered as much public backlash for the excruciating loading times and other interface hiccups. Sadly, it's becoming accepted practice to use new customers as a testing base, so embrace it and let them know how much you're improving their new favorite product.
"The more you start to see other devices that are integrating connectivity with smartphones or tablets through special applications, the more that that's simply going to illustrate the benefits of having Wii U because of the advantages it has in terms of its interactive elements and how the system streams graphics to the Wii U gamepad screen."
And finally we have something that pretty much rings true. The Wii U gamepad's greatest strength is in its native connectivity to the console it serves. Never stop saying this Miyamoto, never stop. We're seeing Microsoft try to emulate the gamepad experience with Smartglass. It's going to look like a gimmick rip-off more as more compatibility issues arise with every new device released on the market. The gamepad's simplicity in this area is a huge, huge advantage.
However, he continues on in a laughably PR-induced line of thinking:
"So for this current generation of hardware, our belief is that Wii U is going to offer the most stable and consistent environment to which developers can bring their ideas."
Yes, it's fair to say the gamepad connectivity offers a stable atmosphere for developing games, but Miyamoto is simply using this as an excuse to rouse hopes for more third-party support. They're all afraid of you Miyamoto - EA, Activision and even Ubisoft - they're all afraid to commit to your console, because they think it's going to shrink in the shadow of the PS4 and next Xbox or their games will bomb like they did on the Wii. Maybe they're wrong, but the environment you speak of, while wonderful in the context of game development, is enormously hostile in the context of business sense.
"Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum. I think in the long term I'm not at a point where I'm concerned yet."
How dare you mention our imperfections. I like to imagine Nintendo giving him a stern talking to after this one, but Nintendo has at least tried to be a bit transparent about their prospects. You have until holiday season, Mr. Miyamoto, until you can stay unconcerned.
"I still look at video games as entertainment. And it seems strange to me to take entertainment and preserve it as a piece of art per se. But I guess MoMA as a museum, they were one of the first to start preserving industrial design products. With myself being an industrial designer, I'm very grateful to see that, and grateful that they're also preserving games."
MoMA's new video game exhibit is currently without Nintendo games, but they want some, according to the New York Times. Miyamoto's response - Video games are art? The man clearly doesn't see himself as an artist even though many see his games as art. It's a bit odd, but it seems like he just doesn't put a lot of thought into that whole argument. He's too busy, you know, making the damn things.
"For a long time at Nintendo we didn't focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features. But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the Internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities."
Yup, lots of people have the internet now. Wait til you see what our phones can do.
"When we were creating the game "Super Smash Bros.," we had very long and deep discussions about whether or not we thought it was appropriate for Mario to hit people."
So all that goomba head-stomping, koopa shell-crushing and the throwing of giant lizards into volcanic pits of death and, you know, generally genocidal behavior - that apparently wasn't violent enough to allow Mario to punch somebody in the face without a hefty discussion.
"So with "Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon," one thing that's particularly unique about that game is the way that it relies on the bottom screen--the touchscreen--for the map. And the ability to play with that map and how you use it to explore the mansion adds a lot to the uniqueness to the game, compared to the previous version"
Because that's never been done before. Oh no, wait, he's comparing it to the previous "Luigi's Mansion," not every game that ever released on a DS or 3DS in the past. Here we go again:
"One of the biggest features of "Pikmin 3" is the fact that you have the map on the Gamepad at all times and because "Pikmin" is a strategy game, it's the type of game that you might play the same levels over and over again."
I can appreciate the use of a map in a game like "Pikmin 3," but there's got to be something a little more interesting about the game. That last part though, about playing it over and over again, may actually indicate "Pikmin 3's" focus on trial-type areas as opposed to the previous two games. "Pikmin 2" had a little bit going on there, but the story itself wasn't really set up for players to consistently repeat areas. Will "Pikmin 3"?
"When you have a meal in front of you, and you have people who eat meat or you have people who eat vegetables, there's sort of the main dish and then you might have a dessert or a salad. Luigi is green, so maybe he's kind of like a salad and right now it seems like people tend to like lighter fare. [Luigi] is a little weaker and timid and maybe people like timid things these days. I guess Link's green, too [laughs]."
This, I just don't really know what to say.
On portraying what the Wii U can do to potential consumers:
"I think the key thing is to give more people more opportunity to come in contact with the system and play it."
To his credit, Miyamoto first pointed to the PR team sitting off to the side before answering the question. He knows this isn't his forte, but his answer may just speak to the dire miscalculation Nintendo is making in marketing their console. Getting it into people's hands has always been step two. Step one is getting people to want to put it in their hands, and Nintendo's lackluster marketing campaign has been a total shot to the heart for the Wii U. Those commercials are just awful, and the lack of games is even worse.
"When the question comes up of what new is going to come from Nintendo, often times that question is really meaning what's the next character after Mario or what's the next character after Pikmin. Whereas from my perspective we approach it not from what is the next character, but really, what is there within the sphere of video games from which we can create new play structures, and in some cases it may be that those new structures will use existing franchises."
This is far and away the most respectable thing Miyamoto could say about developing video games. He understands the marketing value of Nintendo's mascots, but he's always looking for new ways to use them, or new games to put them in. Maybe some elements of Mario and Link are stale but many of Miyamoto's creations are new and innovative. If you love the man, this is probably why.
"As we get into the summer months we're going to start seeing a steady flow of software that's going to be very compelling and very fun for people."
Nintendo hates announcing release dates. We have no idea what's coming, but Miyamoto obviously does. He thinks this summer looks good, even though his next big release, "Pikmin 3," doesn't have a release date and neither do most of the announced Wii U or 3DS games. This line is aimed at the hardcore base, and it may just be a line or may be a look at things to come. The plethora of Luigi titles and all those wonderful things they keep talking about in their Nintendo Direct conferences, they just might be coming.
Or we might just be a bunch of suckers.
