14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo general shareholder assembly might be a chance for the leadership of the company to talk about the performance of its own hardware and software, but Shigeru Miyamoto, the main game creator at the company, has also used it to deliver some strong criticism of the video game industry as a whole.
The official Questions & Answers session features a shareholder asking about the way extra creativity can influence sales, and the legendary creator of franchises like Mario and The Legend of Zelda explains that the industry is still immature.
He says that “To survive in the entertainment industry, it is often the case that everyone tries to follow suit with the strong one. My comment may be at risk of being misinterpreted, but in the digital content field, I think that our creativity is still immature.”
The veteran game developer did not offer any clear details to support his claim, but he is probably referring to the fact that shooters remain the most played video game genre in the world of gaming and that the same franchises tend to dominate sales every year.
Shigeru Miyamoto adds, “In the world of comic books and movies, there are people who are challenging themselves to be even more creative than before in creating their content. I believe that we are still in a transitional period and will eventually step up into the phases where we expand and enrich the substance of our creativity.”
Previously, the developer has explained that Nintendo is in a good position at the moment, because the company tends to be at its most creative when its hardware is not performing great.
At the moment, the Wii U home console is under official projections in terms of sales and has only managed to deliver 2.8 million units to gamers in fiscal 2013, compared to the expected 9 million.
The company says that the launch of Mario Kart 8 has delivered a boost, and before the end of the year, the release of Super Smash Bros. will have a similar effect.
Nintendo has been selling a lot of 3DS handhelds and has cash reserves that can be used to develop long-term projects.
At E3 2014, the company showed off a new The Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U, which Shigeru Miyamoto says should not be seen as being open world in the traditional sense of the word.