Entrevista a Miyamoto

OK, esto es una entrevista hecha por EGM a Sigeru Miyamoto (tambien conocido como el creador de casi todos los juegos famosos de nintendo)

Aca le preguntan cosas como su opinion sobre el actual estado a nivel mundial de la GC (antes del cambio de precio) su opinion sobre la PSP y el juego online


EGM: How and why is Nintendo changing? What mistakes have you been making?

Shigeru Miyamoto: There was a time when people would buy a hardware system for one big title, but we've found that in this generation [of consoles], that's simply not the case. Which is why we're now really focusing on the idea of having a broad lineup--a broader lineup with a broader appeal for a wider audience. But you can't simply add people and expect to make the same high-quality titles that we've always produced. That is why we've been gradually increasing in size internally [at Nintendo world headquarters] in Kyoto--so we can train people and bring them up to the level of quality that we expect.

EGM: And the new development office Nintendo is starting in Tokyo is part of that?

SM: Yes. And that's not simply hiring a bunch of programmers and developers; we're actually taking a strong group of people in Kyoto who've been taught the Nintendo way of development, and they're going to be the core of [the Tokyo team]. So the idea is not just building resources, but building resources that maintain the Nintendo level of quality. That's why we don't go into this idea of just buying up developers and getting all this development power to pump titles out. We look more at finding individuals we think are capable of producing creative titles, and supporting them and giving them the resources they need. Smaller, more independent developers in Japan--we'll support them and give them resources to bring out more original styles of gameplay.

EGM: And you're also using bigger Japanese developers, such as Sega, Capcom, and Namco.

SM: That's also why, with some of the larger developers, we find people we can entrust our franchise characters to. Namco's now making a Star Fox game. Mr. Nagoshi [head of the Sega development studio Amusement Vision] is working on F-Zero. And actually, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami at Capcom came to us and said he wanted to work on Nintendo titles. Sonic creator Yuji Naka has done the same. So really, we're focusing on this idea of finding creative and talented designers to put together a strong lineup for the GameCube.

EGM: What do you think of Sony's announcement of a PlayStation Portable (PSP) coming next year?

SM: What surprised me about the announcement was that with no model or anything to show, they just announced a long list of specs. And for a company as big as Sony to do something like that--I thought that was very surprising. For me the biggest question is, "Why did they do that?" It makes me wonder if there's not some kind of problem or something. [Laughs]

This isn't the first time a major player has announced a handheld; a lot of people have had designs on the handheld market, some of them very big--from Sega to SNK to Bandai, a number of companies have put out handhelds. I don't know how many of those we all remember [laughs], but obviously Game Boy has lasted and continues to do well--the SP is doing very well. We're going to focus on the software, like we've always done, and use that to build the market. Connectivity is another strength we have. You know, I wonder if Sony's not going to try to do something similar and suddenly start talking about connectivity themselves.

EGM: Speaking of connectivity, it's a major theme for your company this year. Why does Nintendo care so much about hooking up your GBA with your GameCube?

SM: What I wanted was to look at a slightly different technological advance in gaming than what we've seen with standard hardware advancements. So what I'm looking at with connectivity is not only what it can bring to gameplay, but also how it can affect future enhancements to hardware. A lot of people are saying that online is the future of gaming, but I actually think there are a lot of different things that could be the future.

If you look closely at the connectivity games, Tetra's Trackers, for the most part, you play on your GBA screen. Occasionally, you look up at the GameCube screen to get the bigger picture, and you compete against one another. Four Swords is a game in which you're all playing together on the TV screen, and sometimes you can go into a secret cave or a house and find secrets on your GBA screen. And then Pac-Man is still another style of game, where you have one player who's completely playing as Pac-Man on the GBA and can see everything, and the other three players are chasing after him [as enemy ghosts], playing on the TV screen.

So what I really see connectivity offering is one basic system of connecting a GameCube to a Game Boy Advance, and yet by doing that, you're able to create all these new styles of games. On top of that, you can take something like an old game that was done in the past and add this connectivity feature to it and all of a sudden, it's got a whole new appeal and a whole new style of fun.

EGM: Do you see connectivity games like Tetra's Trackers and Four Swords as full standalone games, as part of a collection, or for lower prices?

SM: Because the GameCube uses disc media, it opens up a lot of options for us in terms of pricing and how we're going to offer these games. We're still talking to Namco about how to handle Pac-Man, but I think we have a lot of options open to us.

[At a later conference, Miyamoto offered the hypothetical example of offering the GBA-GC Pac-Man as an extra game on a Pac-Man Collection compilation disc.]



Vamos miyamoto! confesa man! hay una GBA2 no? como puede un tipo estar taaaan tranquilo frente a una amenaza de ese tamaño sin tener algun as bajo la manga?

Anyways, sobre la conectividad con la GC, el punto del juego online es lograr lo mismo que en pacman, pero sin la necesidad de conseguir 3 amigos con una GBA cada uno:-|