In speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Miyamoto was asked about the fact that American gamers seem to buy into shooters like Halo more other games that may remain popular in Japan, and whether or not Mr. Miyamoto feels as if he’s losing sight of what American gamers want. Apparently, that’s not his style as a designer.

“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.

“With rising budgets, I understand why game companies have a great deal of concern if they don’t design games in this way, but you need to create what you want to create! In that sense, I would really like to see people develop games like I do. When I show a game to people I don’t ask their opinion or give them a survey. I just watch their eyes and their face while they play. Do they smile? Do they look frustrated? So I guess I do test my games — but it isn’t very scientific.”

Going on, Mr. Miyamoto addressed a question concerning The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess‘ sluggish sales in Japan, suggesting that Japanese gamers are now too busy to dive into such a long and drawn out game like Zelda. Perhaps Aonuma’s previous statement that Twilight Princess was designed with the Western audiences in mind aligns with Miyamoto’s reasoning?

“… to be honest with you, Zelda: Twilight Princess is not doing very well at all in Japan. It is very disappointing. But it is doing okay here in America,

“I think a lot of people who bought the Wii are not necessarily the types of people who are interested in playing that kind of game. And a lot of the people who would want to play it can’t find a Wii! But mostly, I think it’s that there are fewer and fewer people who are interested in playing a big role-playing game like Zelda.”

GameDaily.biz

Trackback URI | Comments RSS