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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.
They should be able to use the original disc, and have the game be locally patched to handle the Wii's control scheme. I wouldn't mind paying $5 for some Metroid Prime goodness.
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.
There, I said it. Never before has there been a consumer interface device with the following properties:
;) The rest of us can't wait to wave our hands around like idiots and laugh while we do it!
1 - Full 3D spatial location tracking
2 - Accelerometer
3 - Gyroscope
It is the combination of all these things that make the controller TRULY innovative, not just innovative in the sense that it is going against the current grain of "more buttonz everywherez". Imagine the effects this controller can have on a game - Splinter Cell's lockpicking mini-game is no longer a matter of jiggling joysticks. You actually have to reach TOWARD the television in order to slide the pins in. Trauma Center will not need a special zoom tool anymore - just reach toward the TV, and it will zoom the image for you! Even launch titles like Twilight Princess are using this to let you actually draw your bow and arrow back.
I don't know how you can possibly say that this approach is not "innovative". You might not personally like it, and that's fine. A lot of people dislike fun! That's why the PS3 exists
"The Wii controller just isn't 'innovative'"
I really cannot say I agree with that. I've recently been playing San Andreas. Though I enjoy the game, the controller is a big hinderance. Not only is aiming the gun a pain in the butt, but it isn't hard to hit the wrong button at an inopportune time. A number of times I've gone to hit the targetting button and changed weapons instead. After I build up some muscle memory on it, it won't matter as much, but it's still frustrating. If the Wii were to get a port of this (blah, I don't expect that, but man I'd love it) I'd be able to point the remote at the target and hit the trigger button to fire. If I want to go jack a car, I'd thrust the nunchuck controller ahead in a punching motion instead of hitting the action button. If those were the only upgrades to the game with the remote, I'd not only have a much better time controlling it, I'd also have a more intuitive interface.
This is the sort of scheme Nintendo is pushing ahead with. In light of what Sony and Microsoft have for their 'next-gen' systems, I'd say 'thin-ice' is the last thing I'd use to describe Nintendo's controller. I went to a 360 kiosk and tried to play a demo of a WWII game. Trying to aim the gun was clumsy at best, and who knows what the other buttons did. I wouldn't mind, but 'running around and shooting stuff' is what most of these games are based on.
Respectfully, I disagree with your post. Partly because I've found FPS gaming (even games like Metroid Prime) frustrating with traditional controls and partly because I'm really enjoying my DS. I'm welcoming the Wii with open arms.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
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.
How is it not innovative? Tell me you've never twisted your controller around while you were trying to make a sharp turn on a race track. Tell me you've never instinctively raised your controller up while trying to get your character to block an attack in a fighting game. Everybody does this, it's instictive. Nintendo looked at all this and said... ok, we're going to drag you further into the game and make your instincts actually count for something.
That's a hell of a lot more innovative than Sony could ever hope to be with Gran Tourismo in 1080p.
I think it'll do well, and given that they're basing their entire console strategy around it, the Wiimote is going to get a hell of a lot of support that other failed gimmicks (like the Virtual Boy or R.O.B.) didn't get. It's certainly something that Sony and Microsoft aren't giving us this time, and that's why I'm sold on it.
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.
It seems a lot of people on internet fourms don't consider the possibly of the DS keeping the Wii market share low. There is a big difference with casual mobile and casual on the console. Also the recent Xbox Live arcade has more to do with the lack of titles than the appeal of the actual games. What happens if you can get the same title for DS as Wii? Which do you think people would buy? This is one of the ideas leading analysts to think of Wii as a '3rd place' in next gen. Once it gets down to the SNES and 'arcade' titles people will want to play those on DS more than Wii.
Designers can't seem to think of anything else.
I don't think it's that they can't think of anything else, it's that they can't implement anything else.
Take Nethack. Now, make a magnificent modern AAA 3D game out of it that sacrifices absolutely nothing. Every spell effect, every creature, every action, everything. It is probably theoretically possible, but it would be a monstrous undertaking. Nethack casually does very advanced things because the graphics, perhaps ironically, support those advanced things as well as they do anything else.
Angband is simpler in many ways, but it also does some things with terrain and detection spells that a modern 3D graphics engine could hardly dream of.
Graphics have shot well ahead of our ability to actually represent things with them. Combat's all that's left, and honestly, it tends to suck; if my sword was actually going straight through that orc, shouldn't it be in two pieces now? But it's easily fakable. Most other things aren't. So we're left with games consisting of the things that are sorta, kinda fakable in 3D.
Who knows how many wonderful features have been cut because there was no way to render them in breathtaking 3D? We end up with only the games we can represent in 3D, which is a horrific subset of the games we could do in 2D. There's still room for 2D games because we aren't as advanced in 3D as we think we are.
The Wii at least attacks one problem, that of the fundamentally binary input of buttons and a directional pad being your only interface into a complicated world. (I am aware that the directional pads are technically analog, but they aren't really very good at it.) But it doesn't do anything to attack the graphics problem.
Hi, thanks for your message. Unfortunately, Slashdot isn't my personal messaging system, so I didn't read one word of whatever you said. Regardless, I hope you enjoy Twilight Princess!
Love,
Shigeru "Important People Don't Read Slashdot" Miyamoto
OMG! Wau!
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