The man who invented Mario holds forth on the disappointing sales of Nintendo’s new console and why he almost showed off some of the new Zelda game at E3.
Shigeru Miyamoto, senior managing director of Nintendo Co. Ltd., at the Wii U Software Showcase during the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, on June 11, 2013.
Via: Bloomberg / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — With so much hullabaloo at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo dedicated to the chest beating between Microsoft and Sony, it's perhaps easy to forget that the company with arguably the most at stake at E3 this year is Nintendo. Sales for the Wii U have been shockingly weak since the console launched last November, and all the buzz surrounding the PS4 and Xbox One isn't helping the once dominant Kyoto company make an impact heading into the holiday buying season. To shake things up, the company even staged an abbreviated press briefing at the Nintendo pavilion on the E3 show floor Tuesday morning, in order to swiftly get the gaming press in front of its new suite of Wii U games.
And at the center of that event stood Shigeru Miyamoto. The 60-year-old game design guru was there to boost his long-in-the-works pet project Pikmin 3, the first new entry in the adorable-if-not-exactly-a-blockbuster strategy series. (It will be available in North America starting Aug. 4.) BuzzFeed sat down with Miyamoto to discuss, through a translator, the performance of the Wii U, the future of Nintendo, and why Mario is sporting a cat suit in his latest game.
Now that the Wii U is on its feet, how do you feel it's done since its launch?
Shigeru Miyamoto: From Nintendo's perspective, the Wii U has created a convenient device for the living room. If you're going to have something connected to your TV, what would be the best device? We're happy with the way it sits as a device that's trying to accomplish those goals. There are a lot of features, such as a unique take on the web browser, or a unique way of using YouTube and lots of other uses. And for the people who have used the Wii U and are familiar with those experiences, the feedback has been relatively positive.
On the other hand, a lot of people have felt that obviously there's a lack of games. While that is somewhat regrettable, we feel that finally at this show, we're able to compliment a lot of those other secondary features by finally giving those other people now what they need. We've positioned ourselves well now.
There is a consensus that the Wii U has not been doing well. First of all, do you think that's a fair assessment? And what do you hope to accomplish moving forward with the Wii U, with what you as a game designer and Nintendo as a company can bring to that system?
SM: Ultimately, it does come down to how many people can we get to experience [the Wii U], and that comes down to games. Like Pikmin or any of the other games at the show, we consider our job is not necessarily saying, "If you don't buy the hardware, you can't play these games," but creating games that take advantage of the features that will create motivation for people to purchase the hardware.
So with that in mind, we're bringing this wide lineup of games in an attempt to get a lot of hardware into homes, especially approaching a particularly competitive Christmas season. We're hoping with this push, we will be able to catch up in the area of sales. I think once we're caught up in that area, the people who have these in the homes, they will understand the added value of a lot of the functionality.
Following up on my earlier question, do you think that the feeling that Wii U has not been doing well is a fair assessment?
SM: Yeah, I believe that compared to past hardware sales and patterns established by those [systems], the Wii U hasn't performed to expectations.
That being said, entertainment does not come down to a direct comparison with numbers. There are different numbers that can be thrown around that don't necessarily [measure] the value in a given entertainment proposition. We think we have at this point a lineup that will motivate people to go out and buy the product, and certainly have high expectations for that going forward.
A fanciful illustration of horrific Pikmin carnage.
Via: Nintendo