14 DAY TRIAL // Recently occupying the 92nd position of TIME's 100 most influential people of 2006, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto talks to Entertainment Weekly about why he chooses to make Japanese-centric games and doesn't try appealing Americans for instance, with games like Halo. Asked whether he ever worries of losing touch with what young American players might want to play, Myiamoto gave a very confident answer. Too confident perhaps:
Miyamoto's confident answer: "I could make Halo. It's not that I couldn't design that game. It's just that I choose not to. One thing about my game design is that I never try to look for what people want and then try to make that game design. I always try to create new experiences that are fun to play."
Innovation is good, I can't argue with that, but not keeping track of gamers' opinions and demand isn't the way to go either. Surely Myiamoto is trying to emphasize on his originality and by all means, the man is 100% original when it comes to games, but I can't possibly believe that Myiamoto doesn't take a look around every once in a while, to see what's popular and what's not.
More than that, even though Nintendo's motion sensitivity controller (the Wii Remote) is probably the most innovative idea in the gaming industry today, that idea also sparked due to intense research of what the public really wants. Does Myiamoto really want to convince us that he acts by instinct every time he has a game design in mind...?