E3 2005: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview

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Online exclusive: The master game designer chats with us about Revolution's power, Mario 128, Kid Icarus and the competition.

by Matt Casamassina

It's Wednesday, the first day of the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2005, and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is a busy man. He's been locked up in meeting rooms hidden away at the back of the publisher's show floor booth. He's met with countless executives and journalists. But he offers no signs of fatigue or frustration. In fact, he's laughing when we enter the room for our exclusive online interview.

Miyamoto is an icon. A superstar. As proof of this truth, his translator explains that only moments before we arrived, the legendary designer toured the Nintendo booth and was mobbed by fans. Apparently one female fanatic begged for her picture to be taken with Miyamoto and when he said yes, she started to sob hysterically. Few figures on the development side of the industry garner that kind of attention.
In the interview below, we speak with Miyamoto about Nintendo DS, Revolution, upcoming games and the competition.

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IGN: Were you happy with your E3 2005 showing?

Shigeru Miyamoto: At our presentation this year I think we were able to show a lot of content, so that was good. Right now in Japan we are engaged in a lot of DS challenges, trying to do a lot of things with that, and I think we were able to show you what we've been doing with the DS.

IGNcube: Are there any particular games for DS that you're particularly proud of now, and what about future DS software?

Shigeru Miyamoto: We're showing on the show floor three games that we're really excited about. Super Mario Bros, which allows for two-player side-scrolling at the same time on different systems. With Animal Crossing on the DS you have that wireless function with four people playing at the same time. And Mario Kart DS, of course, you have eight people racing at the same time and on the Internet you have four-person multiplayer. These are games that are really utilizing good DS functionality. And there's one other game that I'd like to talk about.

[Opens DS system and displays new game in which players are asked text trivia questions and are required to handwrite the answers.]

This is something that we think will appeal to players of all ages - something that you pick up right away and is easy to get into. It might not qualify as a game per se. (Oh, and another game that fits this criteria is Nintendogs, which we showed you yesterday.) We're looking at creating more of this software in Japan and what I've got here and am showing you now is one that's sort of a brain-teaser or brain exercise software.

We use the touch screen to write out answers to problems that the game poses to you and we use the voice recognition software to verbally answer questions or to record sounds. Other products coming out in Japan for DS include a Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese dictionary, which is coming out soon. It runs simultaneously with the Pictochat function so that if I've got my dictionary with me I can cut and paste verbatim whatever it translates and then send it to someone else via Pictochat. Also, in Japan there are a lot of entry examinations for different schools at the elementary level. We have a piece of software based on those tests and you can have eight players at the same time trying to answer all of the questions, which is pretty funny. So these things all represent other possibilities of grabbing people who play games, but also those that don't. I don't think anyone who plays these needs to be a gamer per se but they will still enjoy this type of software.

As far as the Revolution is concerned, development is going really well. But at the same time, this is a trade show and we want to concentrate on our business for this year. So rather than rush out in a panic and try to get a bunch of information out to people, we want to give out some of the general concepts and we're going to save everything else for when we're all set. Next year, when it's the year of the Revolution, we'll bring out everything from under the wrapping paper.

IGNcube: Speaking about Revolution, we have many questions. At a trade show like E3, it seems that perception is so important. You say that it's not the time to reveal Revolution in full. But with major showings from Microsoft's and Sony's next-generation consoles, do you feel that it hurts Nintendo to remain quiet? That people may incorrectly assume that Nintendo is quiet because it isn't prepared to compete with or lags behind its competition?

Shigeru Miyamoto: You know, I didn't get a chance to see the Sony and Microsoft presentations for myself, but from what I've heard from people it sounds like they are going to be using cutting-edge technology, as are we. However, the way that they are planning on implementing that technology is obviously very different from the route that we're going to be taking. On the business side of things I see where we're going and I see where they're going and I'm not worried at all. I don't think it's going to influence us at all. We're good to go.

IGNcube: We don't have any "tech specs" for Revolution. We don't have an educated idea or an estimate of how powerful the machine will be. Can you shed some light?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Let me pose a question to you. When we launched the Nintendo DS, we didn't really say too much about its power. Do you think we've suffered?

IGNcube: No. Definitely not.

Shigeru Miyamoto: We're kind of in a strange period where power is the crux of whether or not something is going to be successful. So again, that seems a little bit odd. If we rely solely on power of console to dictate to where we're going with games, I think that tends to suppress the creativity of designers. They tend to rely solely on what the technology allows them to do instead of thinking of new and creative ideas.

The way we are approaching the development of Revolution is we pose the questions to ourselves: why is the home console necessary? What functions in a home console would make everyone in the family say, "Yeah, we need that and want that." We pose those questions and the answers to those questions are what's guiding our development.

IGNcube: Can you give us an update on Mario 128?

Shigeru Miyamoto: [Chuckles] I'm just really sorry. I think I've given people the wrong impression with Mario 128. With all the questions I'm getting about this, I really feel like I've done people a disservice. In regards to Mario 128, we're currently doing a lot of Mario experiments back in Kyoto. We are definitely going to have a new Mario for Revolution. Whether or not that's 128 or not, I can't really say. It might be a new Sunshine. We're not sure. We're doing a lot of Mario tests right now for the Revolution.

IGNcube: Is Super Smash Bros. for Revolution deep in development or has work just started on the project?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Well, the original Smash Bros. was developed when Mr. Iwata was over at HAL and I was a designer here at Nintendo. Now, of course, Mr. Iwata is the president of Nintendo. I really don't have much to do with Super Smash Bros. It's pretty much him.

IGNcube: You are a producer on Metroid Prime 3 for Revolution. Can you tell us about the game?

Shigeru Miyamoto: I've been working on the Metroid series with Mr. Tanabe. He's pretty much in charge of where that's going right now. I've been really trying to focus more on the Zelda, Mario and new DS titles, and I'm not really in a position to talk about them right now.

IGNcube: Speaking of Zelda, does the game story parallel that of the movie Ladyhawke?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Our game should not be paralleling that movie very closely, no. That's not our intention. In regard to the animals in the game, it's an RPG and the more of those natural elements -- in this case represented by the wolf and the haw -- the more we expand the realm of the RPG and give ourselves room to grow and fill into. We thought that by adding these animals it would help us create a larger and more realistic world.

IGNcube: Do we have to wait until E3 2006 for more Revolution info, or do you have a new Space World coming later this year?

Shigeru Miyamoto: That hasn't been determined. We haven't decided yet. I'm sure that there will be information that we'll get out somewhere, somehow, through developers or something. I'm sure there will be some leaks. But next year at E3, everything will be public as far as Revolution is concerned. It will all be out there, which should tell you that we're well into it. It's not that we don't have anything. So next year you'll get it all.
IGNcube: Have Revolution development kits gone out yet?

Shigeru Miyamoto: We have not sent out development kits to developers yet. However, development kits for the Nintendo Revolution are very similar to the ones for the GameCube. So we feel that the environments are so similar that they will be able to start development very quickly upon receiving the development kits for Revolution.

IGNcube: Can you tell us when you'll send out Revolution development kits?

Shigeru Miyamoto: As far as when we're going to be sending out development kits, we don't have set schedule at this point. But I think that if you look at it, the "development kits" that a lot of other companies are sending out, are those really the ones with the latest chips? Are those the ones that have all the latest technology? It's hard to say. I don't think we're going to be that much different from other companies when they are sending out their actual finished development kits. I think we'll be able to send the development kits in a timeframe that pleases the developers. It's going to be in a time when it fits their development schedules well.

IGNcube: We're all assuming that the revolutionary aspect of Revolution is the controller. Do you know what the Revolution is yet or are you still trying to figure that out?

Shigeru Miyamoto: [Laughs] You're doubting me, aren't you? I can see that you're over there mistrusting my word. I understand. [Laughs]

Of course. It's set in stone. It has been determined. I'd love to show it to you. I'd love to be able to show you the features of the Revolution controller and tell you about them. However, unfortunately if we do that too early those ideas would be stolen. We know that from past history. Analog stick. Boom - gone. Rumble Pak. We bring it out and everybody has to have rumble. We got the wireless out first and now there's wireless everywhere. So we have to keep it under wraps.

IGNcube: Coming back to power. We apologize, but if we don't get some answers our readers are going to go insane. What are the tech specs for Revolution? Or, to put it another way, is Revolution as powerful as Xbox 360?

Shigeru Miyamoto: You know, in regard to the power of the Nintendo Revolution versus, say, the Xbox 360, we're looking at making a small, quiet, affordable console. If you look at trying to incorporate all that, of course we might not have the horsepower that some other companies have, but if you look at the numbers that they're throwing out, are those numbers going to be used in-game? I mean, those are just numbers that somebody just crunched up on a calculator. We could throw out a bunch of numbers, too, but what we're going to do is wait until our chips are done and we're going to find out how everything in the game is running, what its peak performance is, and those are the numbers that we're going to release because those are the numbers that really count.

I do think it's very irresponsible for people to say, "This is what we're running on. This is the power of our machine," when they're not even running on final boards. I think the professional's job is to not believe those numbers.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube

IGNcube: Will you make Kid Icarus for Revolution?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Well, I'm actually working really closely right now with the director of the [original] game. Now, whether or not when we get the Revolution all set up and everything is finalized, well who knows? That might be one of those characters where everybody says, "Hey, with the way our console is designed, that would be a perfect match." My question to you is, if we made this game would you buy it?

IGNcube: Absolutely.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Well, we obviously can't ignore that. Okay, we'll get the Eggplant Wizard coming back.

IGNcube: Can you talk about Revolution's download service? What games will we be able to download?

Shigeru Miyamoto: We have not set a price or determined a list of software for the Nintendo Revolution download service. But, we're looking at this as a consumer service and not so much from the business end. What we want to do is provide the product that is going to make the Revolution the console that people want in their homes. So it actually might be driven from the consumer end rather than from us. You know, the games that they most want might be the ones that we do. From a technological point, we can do any of them. It's just, we haven't determined which ones we'll do yet.

IGNcube: Can we expect Nintendo to collaborate with more third parties on Revolution games?

Shigeru Miyamoto: At this point, we've only been talking with a few companies. However, if other companies come forward and they want to join us to work with us to create games, of course that would be great for us. One thing we want to make sure that we don't do is have too many games of the same type or genre. We don't want too many games involving the same themes or characters.

IGNcube: Will Revolution appeal to the mainstream gamer over the hardcore one?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Our goal with Revolution is to appeal to all gamers -- the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer. On top of that, we really want to get non-gamers involved as well. So it's a console that we want people to feel comfortable with and happy that they have in their home. So for example, you might bring you DS home, turn it on, sit down next to the Revolution and there is some connectivity that allows you to play something that's better than it was with separate components. Our goal really is to build a system that appeals to everybody.

Revolution may come in different colors

IGNcube: Have you seen or played any non-Nintendo games at this year's E3 that have impressed you?

Shigeru Miyamoto: I haven't seen any other software yet. I haven't left this room [laughs]. As far as the other company's software, I've heard that Sony brought out a whole bunch of stuff that looked really pretty, but I haven't heard that any of it is playable. So let me ask you something: have you seen anything on the show floor that's really pretty and playable?

IGNcube: Yes. The game that first comes to mind is Okami from Capcom. It's amazing.

Shigeru Miyamoto: What is that on?

IGNcube: PlayStation 2.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Anything for PlayStation 3, that was playable?

IGNcube: Nothing playable. Unfortunately, some of the PS3 demos were rendered. But there's no doubt it's going to be a beast of a machine. You don't have to speak specifically on the title or titles, but is there a game for Revolution that validates to you the path you seem to be taking with the console?

Shigeru Miyamoto: In the development of the Revolution, I can't really elaborate on anything that explains why this is the specific path for us. We know this is the path for us. I just can't give you specific details that maybe reaffirms for you that we feel comfortable. What thing I can say is that Sony and Microsoft are going down the same road. They have chosen their path and they're sticking to it. They're going down that road together. We have chosen the road less traveled and we're happy with that. We do think that is a good thing.

IGNcube: Do you think Revolution will alienate gamers?

Shigeru Miyamoto: No, I don't think we're going to alienate gamers at all. I think if you look at the stuff we have on Nintendo DS, which is really different from anything else out there, people are playing that and really enjoying it. There is going to be software for Revolution that you will not be able to play or experience anywhere else, on any other console, and I think people will find it enjoyable.

http://www.ign.com/e3/2005/?fromint=1