Interview:GameIndustry International June 12th 2013: Difference between revisions

{{Interview/A|SM|Well, obviously if you speak in terms of simple math you could say that Nintendo should just multiply its development team staff by four times and then everything would be fine, but unfortunately things aren't quite that easy. Our focus is always on delivering the highest quality content, and simply increasing the development team size isn't going to allow you to achieve the level of quality that we strive for. You really have to kind of bring those people up gradually and help teach them how to develop games in order to achieve that consistent quality level. So that's one challenge that we're always engaging with and one we're progressing on.<br><br>The other is a little bit coincidental in that the hardware jump from [[Nintendo DS|DS]] to 3DS was quite big in terms of the difference between those two [platforms] and it just so happens that that same scale of jump happened from Wii to Wii U, consecutively with those two pieces of hardware. And any time you have a big jump in the hardware technology it certainly takes the teams time to learn that and adjust their development environment in order to adapt to those big changes. So I think gradually as we're adding more staff and we're increasing our capabilities... and in the future as the hardware generation change doesn't result in significant change in the hardware environment or capabilities of the hardware, then what ends up happening is you have a smoother transition, as you saw from the Gamecube to Wii.}}

{{Interview/A|SM|So it certainly is a better question for Mr. Aonuma but we are working on a new Wii U Zelda ,as we do whenever we work on a new hardware system. Development on the new Wii U Zelda game, we've pretty much determined our direction on that and the teams are working hard on that. In fact, we actually did consider showing it at E3 this year but we were worried that if we showed the new Wii U Zelda game then that would attract all of the focus, and really what we want people to be aware of and pay attention to here at E3 are the playable games like Pikmin 3 that we have coming in the immediate future, because a lot of fun is with the games that are coming out this year. So that's why we decided not to show it this year at E3, but it's certainly something people can look forward to.<br><br>Of course, as I'm sure you're aware E3 used to be the place where you made all of your big announcements but as we're seeing more and more, particularly with the advantages we have with the internet, we're able to make announcements really at any time. So the other thing we didn't want to do was go through all the news here at E3 - we wanted to be able to have some news to continue to share with consumers over time.}}

{{Interview/A|SM|The one thing I want to say is I'm not actively thinking about retirement, but the thing is you look at my age and you have to naturally take into account that a time may come when I'm no longer there. And particularly at my age now, it wouldn't be strange if I were to just one day fall over. [Laughs]<br><br>So what we're doing is we're approaching it from the stance that there may come a time when I'm not there and then the big question is: how do you ensure that you've trained the young staff in a way that will allow things to continue? And so that's why we've been talking about the fact that sometimes when I'm working on a project with the teams, I say, "I'm not going to do anything; you have to do it all." It's really to try to push them to prepare themselves for when I may not be there. Also going forward, the additional approach that we'll take is really more of me clearly defining the games that I'm deeply involved in versus just the ones that I'm keeping an eye on. Certainly, I think in the last few years we've done a really good job of raising up the younger designers and helping put them in a position that they'll be able to carry things on even if I end up not being there anymore.}}

{{Interview/A|SM|There aren't any specific goals that I'm working towards and I say that because having been in the industry for 30 years, much of what's happened is something that 30 years ago I never imagined would have occurred. So instead, the way that I perceive it is really being ready for that next wave and just seeing how good of a job or how actively I can dive into that wave when it comes and ride it and still come out on the other side. And it's with each new wave that I stay focused on really trying to maintain an active role in how things are developing. So I don't really have a clear end goal that I'm measuring myself against - it's really more about riding the waves.<br><br>For me, it's less about doing what other people are doing and really more about trying to see what I can do that's different from everyone else, because entertainment is really about how can you surprise people with things that they aren't expecting. If you're doing the same thing as everyone else, then it won't be surprising for people. So it's always to me an exercise in how do I find something that's new and unique that no one's done before and bring that forward and present it in a way that will surprise them, and just repeating that process.}}

{{Interview/A|SM|So this is actually a discussion that I think is tricky to balance, and certainly internally at Nintendo we have people on the teams who say, "Wouldn't this be better if we created a new IP around it?" But to me, the question of new IP really isn't whether or not [you have a new character]... I look at it from [the perspective of] what is the gameplay experience in the game you're playing? For a lot of people, they would say if you take an old game and wrap a new character around it, that's a new IP, but that game is still old, and the experience is still old. So what we're doing is we're always looking at what type of new gameplay experience can we create, and that's the same for whether we're playing with one of our existing IPs or we're doing something new.<br><br>Pikmin 3 is a good example; the Pikmin characters were something that were born out of a new gameplay idea when we first came up with that game. We created the gameplay idea first and we decided that the best characters suited for that gameplay idea were Pikmin characters. That's where the Pikmin IP came from. Similarly, if you look at our booth here, we're showing it as a showcase of all of Nintendo's great characters, but in each and every one of those games the gameplay experience is what's new. So from my perspective, it's not a question of just how can we create a new character and wrap it around an old game and put that out and call it a new IP. It's always about starting with a new gameplay idea and a new experience that's unique from an interactive standpoint and then finding a character that's best suited with that. In some cases, it may be an existing character, and in some cases it may lead us to a new IP at some point in the future.}}

{{Interview/A|SM|Well, first of all, the entertainment industry is one that is inherently unstable and if people decide that they no longer need entertainment anymore then there's no way for you to make money off of that. Because of the waves in the entertainment industry and the way the cycles move, personally I feel that aiming for a specific numerical goal is almost silly, and instead our focus should be on doing our best to create something that's new and unique. So all of this talk of "Oh is Nintendo going to hit its numbers? Is Mr. Iwata responsible?" and all these discussions I think are just silly ones to have because Mr. Iwata is managing our company and I don't think there's anyone better to manage it than him.<br><br>So for me, I'm really focused on creating the most fun and unique experiences I can so that the entertainment can appeal to a very broad audience, and we're having fun doing that. So certainly I think there are other industries where I think their chance to appeal to a broad audience has been lost, but I still think within our industry we have a lot of opportunity to do that.}}