Miyamoto on game violence, Wii U's future, embracing online
A portion of an NY Times interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...
Q. What do you think of the conversation we’ve been having in the United States about games and violence since the elementary-school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December?
A. That’s a difficult question. As someone who creates games and understands that children play those games, it’s a subject that I’m very sensitive about. We’ve seen through a variety of media that when people see or experience violence on screen, there is a certain amount of entertainment that people get out of that.
Mario is a character that, I feel, doesn’t need to use guns. But when it comes to violence, you then have to ask, “So, if Mario doesn’t use a gun, is it appropriate for Mario to hit people?” And, in fact, when we were creating the game Super Smash Bros., we had very long and deep discussions about whether or not we thought it was appropriate for Mario to hit people.
Q. The Wii U hasn’t sold as well as the Wii. Have you been disappointed by its reception?
A. I think that the Wii U still has a long future. We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch. Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum. I think in the long term I’m not at a point where I’m concerned yet.
Q. What’s most exciting to you about video games right now?
A. For a long time at Nintendo we didn’t focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features. But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the Internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities.
Q. What do you think of the conversation we’ve been having in the United States about games and violence since the elementary-school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December?
A. That’s a difficult question. As someone who creates games and understands that children play those games, it’s a subject that I’m very sensitive about. We’ve seen through a variety of media that when people see or experience violence on screen, there is a certain amount of entertainment that people get out of that.
Mario is a character that, I feel, doesn’t need to use guns. But when it comes to violence, you then have to ask, “So, if Mario doesn’t use a gun, is it appropriate for Mario to hit people?” And, in fact, when we were creating the game Super Smash Bros., we had very long and deep discussions about whether or not we thought it was appropriate for Mario to hit people.
Q. The Wii U hasn’t sold as well as the Wii. Have you been disappointed by its reception?
A. I think that the Wii U still has a long future. We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch. Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum. I think in the long term I’m not at a point where I’m concerned yet.
Q. What’s most exciting to you about video games right now?
A. For a long time at Nintendo we didn’t focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features. But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the Internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities.
