Miyamoto's entire presentation was displayed using the Wii's photo viewer channel, and it kicked off with some reminiscing of just how far the industry has come since he began working at Nintendo. Touching on how rapidly gamers and their perceptions in the media have changed, he noted that the public opinion of gamers was akin to kids being turned into zombies. Pictures showing gamers sporting serious frowns as they furiously plugged away playing video games caused some mirth in the audience, but it would be this image that Miyamoto would use to convey how the reputation of the industry took a dive.
Mii-amoto
Finding himself and Nintendo as a company at a developmental crossroads, it was decided that something needed to change in order to define a creative vision of what Nintendo's games should be and would become going forward. He commented that his own personal would have to -- at some level -- compliment and resonate with Nintendo's vision as a company.
Nintendo's Vision
Miyamoto named three distinct areas that comprised the company's creative vision. The first was the expanded audience. What followed were some amusing personal anecdotes involving his own wife, and her gradually increasing interest in gaming as new hardware -- the Nintendo DS and the Wii -- brought about video games that were increasingly friendly to new and non-gamers.
By the time Nintendogs and Brain Age hit the DS -- and more recently, the Miis and the Everybody Votes Channel on the Wii -- she had totally transformed from a non-gamer to an avid gamer.
Next up was the subject of balance. He noted that Nintendo has a well-struck internal balance which facilitates much easier development cycles for both hardware and software. Everything that happens at Nintendo is a group effort -- no single person is responsible for the success of the company's projects.
Apparently, creating the Wii remote controller was an intensive process. There were times when different teams working on the project clashed. After a long development process and many different prototypes and test runs, the final remote product was completed. The remote now offers exactly what Miyamoto wanted: the chance to make brand new game experiences. This, he said, is Nintendo's mission.
The third element was risk. Nintendo has always encouraged its employees to try new and different things. The bigger the challenge, however, the bigger the risk. Miyamoto questioned his own definition of what a video game or system should be. A good example of this is the Nintendo DS. His ultimate goal is to make games fun, but none of his previous risks has ever rivaled the design of the Wii. In fact, it wasn't until last year's E3, when Nintendo saw the positive reception to the Wii, that Miyamoto knew that the risk was worth taking. He stated that corporate vision is essential, but in the end it's people that make video games.
