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Shigeru Miyamoto to Keynote Game Developer's Conference
Gamasutra is reporting that legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto will be headlining a GDC keynote during the event this March. Jamil Moledina, the director of GDC, covers what Miyamoto will be talking about and a bit of his long history in a post to the GDC blog. From that post: "Getting him back to GDC has been tricky. While having spoken at GDC in 1999, Miyamoto-san's commitments are considerable. Thankfully his boss gets what GDC is for. As you may know, Satoru Iwata has inspired the GDC audience two years in a row, with iconic and revealing addresses. Both instances mapped to surges in developer interest in and support for Nintendo's platforms, which speaks to the dramatic symbiosis between platform and developer -- as well as the effectiveness of the GDC biosphere in enabling the productive sharing of knowledge and experience."
Something I have seen commented on several times is that Nintendo has the most insightful and entertaining public speakers in the entire videogame industry.
... I imagine he will argue that unique games which people find fun sell well not shiny graphics; he will demonstrate this trend by showing DS and Wii sales.
A friend of mine who is a developer for a company which "Works Closely" with Microsoft on XBox 360 games saw Iwata's keynote (2 years ago I think) and he said when the presentation was done he wanted to stop developing FPS and create some unique game for the DS; he didn't, but it was how he felt. Honestly, I can't wait to see what he talks about and shows off
The news would be that this particular legendary game designer hasn't spoken at this developers' conference (or any other) in eight years. Rare occurances are newsworthy.
I for one have usually cared more about things like the GDC than E3, because it's more interesting to hear theory from the brains of the industry than the flash and tech demos of E3. Now, with E3 gone, I have a feeling stuff like this will get a lot more press coverage, which I see as a very good thing. At the very least, the GDC looks more professional than E3, which might help kick off some of our stereotypes as just a bunch of kids messing around.
Satoru Iwata is an excellent English speaker. It may not be perfect, but it's extremely good for anyone who isn't a native speaker. However, I haven't had the opportunity to hear any public speaking of significant duration from Shigeru Miyamoto that was in English. Small amounts here and there, but not entire keynotes.
I suspect that while his English is good, he just isn't comfortable speaking much of it in front of a large audience.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Honestly, I could care less about PCs and their overly complicated games.
Column A: Spore is exciting because it's being made in such a way that anyone can play around with it. It'll be a simple game, but a one with great depth.
Column B: Supreme Commander disappointed me because the last time I tried the beta the emphasis remained on the same micromanagement I saw in WarCraft II, StarCraft, WarCraft III, any C&C etc. SupCom was supposed to be about macromanagement and moving away from needless complications. Unless things have dramatically changed I haven't seen that.
To boot, the consoles have their fair share of both Column A and Column B. Unless RTS games are all you play, I don't see where you're coming from calling all console games "simple".
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Get his ass back in the office, chain him to the desk, and tell him to finish Mario Galaxy!
Two Nintendo consoles in a row without a Mario launch title?! Who's in charge there?