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Miyamoto on Wiimakes, Dead-End Design
GameDaily is reporting on an interview that Nintendo Dream scored with legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Mr. Miyamoto spoke about the future of design and Wii gaming during the interview, touching on several interesting topics. Older Gamecube titles, for example, may be remade for the Wii at some point in the future to take advantage of the console's unique control scheme. There are no announcements of which titles might see this treatment, but he seemed confident that if it does happen the pricepoint would be rather low. In some more high-level comments, Mr. Miyamoto stated that game designers have come to a dead-end as regards gaming today. Not sparing his own company, the designer thinks that future titles will have to come at gaming from a very different perspective if they are to succeed.
I think the idea is intended to appeal to the people who never owned a Gamecube and missed out on some good games.
You have planned to launch a system with a fundamentally different interface from what people are used to. How to optimally exploit this for fun games is not obvious, because it's very out-of-the-box. The more minds you can have working on this, the better. This is even more important than on rival consoles because of the immensely-greater possibilities. If you really want to discover the most innovative uses of the Wiimote, you're going to need to let hobbyists buy the (fortunately affordable) SDK. Even if their version is bad, if they hit on a good use no one though of, that can become an instant console-seller. Why keep your restrictive policies about the size of developers you'll sell to?
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
The Wii controller just isn't 'innovative'
I'm curious to what dictionary you got your definition of 'innovative' out of...
(innovative = characterized by, tending to, or introducing innovations, yeay for recursive definitions)
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/innovations
Main Entry: innovation
Pronunciation: "i-n&-'vA-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : the introduction of something new
2 : a new idea, method, or device : NOVELTY
Seems to me this controller fits that definition to a T. What I don't find innovative is simply increasing resolution or texture depth or triangles per second. It's not *new* it's just an improvement, like going from a 20" TV to a 32" TV.
It might not be an innovation that works, or appeals to the entire crowd, but you can't have a success without some failures. (Virtual Boy...ugg) Personally, I'm excited by it. I don't need a new console to play games with a control pad; I've got emulators and a Gravis. I don't need spiffy shiny console games, I can get a new system with an X1950 for that.
However, this is a bonifide innovation, and it might actually be fun.
If you look at the strategy employed on the DS (another non-innovative system by your reckoning) you will see that while there are many games that take advantage of the touch screen/microphone there are also many successful games that don't make use of it al all.
Nintendo will encourage developers to make use of the unique capabilities of the Wii but they will not force feed it to the public. If Nintendo feels that a game is better experienced with a standard gamepad they'll run with it.
I know I'm feeding a troll here, but Nintendo has never stated that they think scores of non-gamers are out there wating with bated breath for a console made just for them. They have repeatedly stated that modern console systems are tough to get into if you are ouside of the gamer group. They have repeatedly stated that they hope the familiar "remote" shape of the controller and the intuitive control will help make non-gamers feel comfortable. Whether this works out the way they would like, is to be decided starting this fall.
The Wii controller talk about 'actually swinging your controller like a sword' or 'use the controller like a fishing rod' reminds me of the race back in the late 80s rpg/adventure games where developers kept adding more and more real world actions to their games. Feeding, equipping items, moving/manipulating objects in the world. In the end it became tedious.
I have not one idea how you think those two things are comparable. If it were somehow the case that games would, by definition, use the Wiimote to make the user constantly open a backpack and equip items in Zelda, that would be one thing -- but I don't see how the one thing leads to the other. If you're just saying that the Wiimote actions will necessarily become too repetitive, I'm lost as to why they're any more or less "tedious" than the blank-eyed button pressing on other controllers and consoles.
(Frankly, too, I've been around a while and I don't remember the supposed phase you're describing in rgps and adventure games.)
Your idea that, because the Wiimote can result in some of the same actions that button presses and joystick controls can cause on-screen, it's somehow not innovative -- that would dismiss such changes as analog controls as also not being innovative. After all, we could move characters on screen before them, right?
Finally, your argument begs the question: Nintendo is treading on thin ice next to what competition? The $600 "buy our HDVD standard product"? Do you have some idea that actually would be "innovative" in your book? Or what?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
But it won't be enough to save Nintendo.
What makes you think that Nintendo needs to be saved?
I don't have the link to the analysis anymore but I have seen people who looked into the financial statements of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo over the past 5 years and Nintendo made as much of a profit as Sony (the whole company, not just the games division) over that time frame; on the other hand, Sony has been seeing declining profits (or increasing losses) in practically every division except for their financial/insurance division and their games division is one of the few profitable divisions. Sony is betting that the PS3 can drive the sales of HDTVs, surround sound systems, and Blu-Ray movies in order to make most of their divisions profitable again.
The Wii will probably sell at least as many systems as the Gamecube, the Virtual Console will easily become a cash cow as people re-buy games they have already purchased, and the unique Wiimote will drive the sales of Nintendo developed software (because Nintendo is one of the best companies for inovating with a new input device). Meanwhile the DS is more popular then the GBA was, its selling massive quantities of Nintendo software, and looks to continue performing well. Nintendo will be fine.
Sony (on the other hand) will probably sell less PS3s then they sold PS2, will be forced (by Microsoft) to sell them at a loss for most of the generation, will see lower software sales from higher game costs ($60-$70 per title) and a smaller user base, will see lower profits from each sale from higher development costs, will face greater marketing costs from the contining falure of the PSP, and so on.
Sony is in some rough shape, and it can only get worse
Which is one of the reasons designers are at a "dead end". With a few notable exceptions, video/PC games are based on Sports or Combat of some type. Even "Adventure" or the badly-mischaracterised computer "Role Playing" games usually involve lots of fighting. Designers can't seem to think of anything else.
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Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Using Trauma Center since the GP used it and you responded to it... I enjoy Trauma Center but am no doctor. So if I want to have fun doing medical stuff, using your logic, I should go outside and perform an emergency operation on the easiest or slowest animal/person I can catch rather than play Trauma Center with the Wiimote.
Bleah, no thanks. Reality >>>> Wiimote, but not in every situation.
Nothing stopping them from adding wifi support either. I'd definitely buy a wifi enabled, graphically overhauled, wii controller remake over the cube version in the used bin.
Why can't they do both? You honestly think they would sacrifice new ideas to remake cube games? I seriously doubt it.
I disagree with Miyamoto's statement that developers have come to a dead-end. Gaming is far from having it a dead-end.
Gaming may be a bit stagnant, but that's the fault of excessive budgets, marketing departments and the gamers themselves who seem to thrive on more of the same.
It definitely isn't because of technological limitations and an unconventional controller isn't going to change everything. The Wii controller allows for some new variations on gameplay but ultimately it's just another control device. What I've seen for the Wii thus far takes existing genres and merely provides a new control scheme. The DS is the same. It hasn't really innovated gameplay, it just introduced gameplay previously nonexistant in the console world. Many of those DS games feel like little more than glorified flash games.
Which brings me to something else... I don't think credit is being given where it's due. The true innovators have been Flash and indie game developers. They're the ones who've really introduced new concepts and have improved existing concepts. There's a lot of crap out there, but the good stuff truly stands out. And the relative simplicity and easy accessibility has allowed Flash games to be popular amongst non-gamers.
One device that has really enabled this kind of gameplay has been the mouse. It's more precise than almost anything else out there and it's very simply to use. Put a mouse in the most inept person's hand and they'll figure out how it works rather quickly. I doubt the Wii controller will even have that kind of ease of use.
This is not to discount Nintendo. They certainly know what they're doing. First of all, they were smart distinguish themselves from the competitors. And secondly, they wisely they've been focusing on gameplay. They brought that intuitive gameplay to consoles.
Whether it pays off in the long run remains to be seen. The average gamer may be drawn to Nintendo, but attractive non-gamers is far from certain. These are the kinds of people who I expect who would have more experience with PCs than they do with conoles. Spending $50 on a game is a far cry from spending $200+ on a console and then another $50 on a game. Additionally, given that there is so much gaming to be had online for free they may be even more reluctant to spend money especially if they realize they wont have much time to play anyway.
Japan doesn't make for a good comparison with the rest of the world simply because more age groups there are open to new technologies. You don't see middle-aged men anywhere in the world reading comic books on trains like you do in Japan. It's only natural that many more older people there would be buying these consoles. People elsewhere might find a particular game curious, but whether that's another to motivate them to actually go out and spend the money is another story.
Also, keep in mind that there are quite a few people out there who really do want more of the same old crap. I know quite a few people who will immediately dismiss a game if it doesn't have the latest graphics, isn't a FPS or doesn't have an adult theme. There is a reason American companies keep pumping out FPS and sports games, just like there's a reason Japanese companies keep pumping out RPGs and fighting games.
After all, by your definition, the printing press wasn't particularly innovative. After all, people had been making books for years. All the printing press did was make it faster and more efficient. It didn't even make bookmaking better. After all, I don't know if you ever read an illuminated book, but they are gorgeous, especially in comparison to the drab, cookie-cutter text we have now.
The individual bits in the Wii remote may not be new, but they are certainly innovative.
just some guy