Inspiring the video games master
Updated on 22 October 2008
Watch some of the highlights from Benjamin Cohen's interview with Nintendo's Shigero Miyamoto.
Creating the Wii
"Nintendo is not against the idea of traditional video games but when it comes to the objectives of Wii - we want it to be enjoyed by the whole family.
"The wii is situated next to the tv set in the living room. With that objective in mind- we created three essential themes- sports, fitness, and finally music too. You can enjoy them all regardless of your skill level."
Finding inspiration
"I have already worked on a hundred video games. Somewhere there must be a relationship to my hobbies.
"When you talk about the titles which can be called the immediate result of my hobbies, I have never counted but there must be between five and ten titles."
Q. What are those titles?
"In the most recent example, Nintendogs. Our family has a pet dog and that experience resulted in making the Nintendogs software.
"The inspiration for Wii fit. I used to love weighing myself every day, I wanted others to share that joy.
"I would also add Wii music into that catagory. That stems from my love of music. "
Q. So does that mean you don't talk about your hobbies because your rivals may work out what your next project is?
"You're right. Our company president often tells me not to talk about my hobbies."
Using brain power
"When people are thinking one way of another, their eyeballs move in a certain direction. If we can sense that, then we may be able to use that for video games.
"Brain waves are another possibility. The important aspect of our job is to entertain people. We're looking into any possibilities and new technologies."
Picking favourites
"It's rather hard to identify which one is the one I'm most proud of. I often say that as it started of my career as a game designer, Donkey Kong was a really important one.
"Afterall, when I was first involved with its creation there was no such job as a games designer at all. So in that sense Donkey Kong is very important.
"Afterwards we introduced people to Super Mario brothers, which is the best selling video games series in the world. That's got to be most important title for me and for the industry.
"Now we have Wii Fit and Wii Music - they are going to be important in the video games industry. Whenever we come up with new style of entertainment, that's going to be very important to me."
