GameCube era made Miyamoto sad :(

[Patticus]

Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed to Famitsu that he felt “sadness” during Nintendo’s GameCube phase.

“There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did,” he said.

“The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition the same as being number one with the general public? That’s the question we had.”

He continued: “Entertainment is something that you have to look at the world with a very wide eye as you create it. I always thought that, but there were a few years where I was unable to get off other people’s trends. It was a dilemma in my mind.”

During Nintendo’s N64 console era and the one following, Miyamoto was fascinated with 3D worlds, but the rendering and processing speed were too much for the team at the time.

“This is a job where you have a plan and you polish it endlessly while getting help from others. If Nintendo’s games fail to stand out as games that aren’t made that way proliferate, then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made me very sad.

“That was especially obvious during the GameCube era; Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed by the general public back then.”

Because of his team’s mental block, Nintendo started over and aimed for games that could “be played by people who don’t play games”. The company wanted something that would revolutionize the market — so ex-Nintendo president Yamauchi came up with the ‘two screens’ concept.

The rest is DS history.

More here.

So... it looks like we have the much-hated Yamauchi to thank for introducing Nintendo to the dual screen concept, and the way Miyamoto and his team worked during the GCN era to thank for Nintendo's present plotted course (games 'everybody' can play). I had no idea that that could have been behind the trend they kick-started, I always just assumed it was because their execs realised that trying to compete on the same level as Sony would continue the process of diminishing returns and something drastic had to be done to reverse that. Or maybe there was an element of both involved?

[Jix Hedgehog]

He's only having a cry cus it was the first step away from a cartridge loader console.

He could take it into consideration that Nintendo were totally devoted to making the GC a game only machine and nothing else (meanwhile PS2 / Xbox had extra features)

[Patticus]

Discs had nothing to do with it you moron.

[JezMM]

Shigeru Miyamoto is such a cool guy I actually want to give him a hug, make him a cup of tea and tell him about all my favourite GameCube games. =(

[BlitzChris]

I loved my GameCube to bits....the fact that I've got 24 games on it is a testiment to that.

[Mollfie]

I love Shiggy, he always seems like such a nice bloke. I never owned a GC though.

[Roareye Black]

Yamauchi was apparently a major git, but he was also the smartest President they had. Better than Iwata, sorry guys. Yamauchi understood the power of creating amazing games. Iwata is fascinated purely on a business and financial end. Nintendo's offerings since Iwata took over (Including the Nintendo Difference scheme that killed the GameCube) have driven them further and further downhill in the eyes of fans but higher and higher in profiteering. Again, from a business sense Iwata is an absolute legend. However by people who want quality games, he's not so highly regarded.

Brawl wasn't as fun to play as Melee, it was a mixture of different things but Melee was always more tense and enjoyable. Metroid Prime 3 was years ago now, but at least was good. In fact it's been about a year since Nintendo released Brawl which is the last hardcore title they released. This is something acceptable if there are other games coming (Development quality over quantity) but they havn't shown anything off for future coolness which only leads us all to believe they haven't got anything worth showing.

It angers me that Miyamoto slanders the N64 era, Nintendo's best generation by far, and yet somehow thinks he's shitting gold this gen! Nintendo's current games aren't the golden gems they used to be, maybe you should focus on fixing that.

However the man is an absolute legend, and to be honest he's likely past it now. Literally he is the grand-daddy of gaming, and it's beginning to show in his work. I'm uncertain he has enough left in him to revolutionise gaming as he once did. Or maybe it's purely based on the work he has atm. We all know the best art comes from restrictions and finding ways to break them, but Miyamoto and Nintendo no longer do this. They go "We has waggle stick, we make waggle gamez. If no wagglez workz, we uze GameCube padz." Maybe they need to stretch their imaginations over their current control system in a less gimmicky way... or admit the Wiimote is shit. Motion Controls are the future, but the Wiimote is under-developed and certainly not good enough to call itself the future.

Roareye Black.

[Patticus]

This is something acceptable if there are other games coming (Development quality over quantity) but they havn't shown anything off for future coolness which only leads us all to believe they haven't got anything worth showing.

The reason they're so secretive is that if they don't feel what they've got is presentable (as in, it's too soon/not polished up enough), they aren't going to show it off like other devs might. They also don't want to have a three/four year long hype train going if they know the game won't be out until 2011 or whenever - they don't want a situation like Alan Wake has (been in development for years, not much seen of it, people very hyped but could be vapourware/big disappointment).

It angers me that Miyamoto slanders the N64 era, Nintendo's best generation by far, and yet somehow thinks he's shitting gold this gen! Nintendo's current games aren't the golden gems they used to be, maybe you should focus on fixing that.

He's "slandering" it, as you put, because the games he produced over the N64/GCN eras were among his very best, but did the general public - his audience - want to know? Did they fuck. I'd be sad too if my best work was left mostly unsold to the audience I desired it be sold to. I'd also seriously consider taking a different approach, as they did with the Wii - they certainly could not have gone on with another direct competitor to the PS360, two generations of that strategy failed miserably.

We all know the best art comes from restrictions and finding ways to break them, but Miyamoto and Nintendo no longer do this. They go "We has waggle stick, we make waggle gamez. If no wagglez workz, we uze GameCube padz." Maybe they need to stretch their imaginations over their current control system in a less gimmicky way... or admit the Wiimote is shit.

Miyamoto and Nintendo do still do that - look at Mario Galaxy. Released over a year ago, sure, but as their last big project it's proof that, when they want to, they can use art direction to overcome any obstacle. Also, do you really expect them to admit their product is shit? That'd be like that other millionaire guy who admitted his product was shit (which lost him his corporate empire). Yeah, smart move there.

Motion Controls are the future, but the Wiimote is under-developed and certainly not good enough to call itself the future.

The Wiimote can call itself the future because it alone has ensured that that future happens - a half-hearted HD system peripheral would not have had the effect the remote has, nor would Sixaxis. The tech in the remote isn't what any of us had hoped, I know, but the impact the thing has had.. it's beyond measure.

[Eileanach]

I absolutely love my gamecube! I have two. XD I just I don't see why he is so saddened by it. All game companies copy and steal off of other game companies its how they compete or try to.

If anything I would have said the wii should have made him break down and contemplate suicide. Creating games "everyone" can play with the sacrifice of good graphics is... pretty saddening, well I personally think so anyway. I much prefer the gamecube to the wii and I also prefer the DS to any other handheld console.

Poor sad Japanese man needs a hug from his fans.

[Max Gene]

Literally he is the grand-daddy of gaming.

No, he's not. The daddy, perhaps, but grand-daddy would be Nolan Bushnell. Without him the business wouldn't have taken off like it did.

[Crystal Kingfisher]

I loved my GameCube to bits....the fact that I've got 24 games on it is a testiment to that.

I love the 'Cube too. It had lots of classics like Melee, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Sonic Adventure 2, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, StarFox Assault (wish I had that game though), Pikmin 1 and 2 (only played 2 though and I wish I had both), Super Mario Sunshine, and loads more. The Wii just can't live up to the epicness of the SNES, N64 (best Nintendo console EVER), or Gamecube.