Miyamoto and the Changing Face of Games

Nintendo's spiritual leader isn't fond of the kids-in-the-basement image games currently suffer under.

Game creators are leading down two very different paths: some are concerned about keeping the current audience happy, expanding it where they can, while others want to get not only your sister but also your parents playing. Shigeru Miyamoto knows which camp he prefers.

Part of the task of bringing in new people is breaking free of the negative image many have of gamers as loners hunkered in their bedrooms with only a TV screen to illuminate their world.

"We've been looking at that image since the days of the NES and I think it's important we break out of that image," Shigeru Miyamoto told MTV News earlier this month.

"I think it's time to break free from that stereotypical definition of what a gamer is, because until we do, we'll never truly be part of the national or worldwide culture."

And that's where the Wii comes in.

Miyamoto thinks controllers have become too fiddly, too riddled with buttons, and too geared towards the same audience. The Wii controller, on the other hands, taps into primal urges in all of us - think of when you played a driving game for the first time and how you moved the controller.

"Gradually, as video games have evolved, the controllers have become more evolved and they've added more buttons because we want to allow the players to do more and more things," Miyamoto told MTV.

"With the motion-sensing and the pointing and these new types of interfaces on the Wii and the nun-chuck [the Wii remote with its add-on], we're able to give players the freedom to do the types of actions that they want to do in video games without so many complicated buttons - thereby making it both intuitive for longtime game players and for people who have never played video games before."

A lot of work is being done to change the image of games, especially at Nintendo. But what does the company want the new face of games to be? Miyamoto explains says he wants it to be "people of all ages kind of standing up, having a lot of fun and moving around."

"It's a very active and fun-looking image and that's the type of image I would like to see video gaming viewed as."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games