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If there’s a household name in game development, it has to be Shigeru Miyamoto. The man has created or had a hand in pretty much every big Nintendo franchise, and his gameplay ideas and releases continue to inspire generations of gamers and developers alike.

Nowadays, Miyamoto has been involved in taking those characters from his many games and branching them out into new endeavors. That obviously includes the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie, as well as Super Nintendo World. In an interview with IGN, Miyamoto elaborates on this expansion of IP outside of games as an important part of growing Nintendo.

“This is something I’d been discussing for over 10 years with Mr. [Satoru Iwata]. Nintendo has a lot of characters…I think that sometimes Nintendo gets tossed in with other companies in the field of video games, but we’ve got to think that Nintendo’s biggest strength is its characters and how that is used in different types of media beyond just games.

In that way, really trying to leverage all the characters we have and not just limiting ourselves to games, but finding the best media for the characters to thrive in is something we really want to keep an eye on. If there is a business opportunity, we’d certainly love to explore it. But Nintendo’s a company with many different talents involved.”

[Shigeru Miyamoto]

Of course, this push to reach out with game IP doesn’t mean Miyamoto is done making games. There’s always something new in the pipeline, and with Miyamoto, you can always expect his works to be gameplay first.

This approach has led some to believe that Miyamoto has a dislike for story in games, or believes story doesn’t matter. According to Miyamoto, he has nothing against story-driven games at all; it’s simply not his style.

“It’s not that complex stories are unnecessary, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Story is one way of explaining a game. I think story is just another way to pull out enjoyment from that experience. Another is to focus on a gameplay experience that gets you to try things over and over again. As I mentioned, story is one way to explain the game, and when that goes well sometimes people take the route of starting with the story. For me, the starting story is how to make the gameplay fun, and that’s how I begin thinking about and creating a game. So again, it’s not that story is unnecessary, it’s just how I create games.”

[Shigeru Miyamoto]

One franchise famous for being light on story but loaded with amazing gameplay is Mario. Some fans were expecting to see a new Mario game coincide with Super Nintendo World or the Super Mario Bros. movie, but Nintendo hasn’t made a peep. While Miyamoto wasn’t willing to announce anything, he did share a tiny tidbit on Mario’s game future.

“We’re always working on Mario, so when we get to a time where we can share information, we’ll certainly do so.”

[Shigeru Miyamoto]
[IGN]

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Comments (3)

kuribo

1y ago

Can they do more orchestral concerts with Nintendo music? Bring back Ballad of the Goddess.


gybones

1y ago

@kuribo

Yes!! Please make this happen Nintendo


socar

1y ago

So then the guys at Intelligent Systems and Kensuke Tanabe mistook what his stance was on stories. So much for blaming him for Paper Mario's less story arguements.