• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Miyamoto(via Famitsu) on personal accolades: "Games are not created by a single person [...]"

Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
So Miyamoto did an interview with Famitsu for the Switch's third anniversary with a lot of good discussion. You can read a partial translation on Japanese Nintendo.

I want to highlight one part in specific though where Miyamoto discusses being names a person of cultural merit

Shigeru Miyamoto's comments on getting selected as a Culture Contributor "Games are not created by a single person, so I'm very sorry for receiving this honour personally. The members with whom I started developing games together from almost 40 years ago are still developing together with me even now, while cooperating with developers all around the world. I'm deeply grateful that this team – which has a sense of stability – is getting valued, and also for video games to be given spotlight as Japanese culture. I shall continue devoting myself to make people worldwide smile even from hereafter."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think it's really good to see probably the most revered creator in the industry be humble and talk about game development as a collaborative process.
 
LewieP

LewieP

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,093
j9pijAd.png


uk.ign.com

Deus Ex 2 - IGN

Not only did the original Deus Ex walk away with our own Game of the Year Award; it even managed to snag the same honor from our readers. By all accounts Warren Spector's open-ended take on action and role-playing games was a huge boost for the industry. The fact that it was set in a dark...
uk.ign.com uk.ign.com
 
Nabbit

Nabbit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,421
I agree. Great to see deep appreciation for his fellow game makers.

Dumb joke incoming:

Translation: do not blame only me for changes to the Paper Mario series of games.

P.S. Color Splash is ridiculously under-appreciated.
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,712
he's rite but that doesnt mean that individual people dont matter to a project. creators are not interchangeable. depending on whos involved in a project you can get very different things. i feel like many people who dismiss auteurs and the like think a project would be the same with out them. its like saying your favorite band would be the same if they got rid of one of the members with an interesting playing style
 
Last edited:
Yuntu

Yuntu

Prophet of Regret
Member
Nov 7, 2019
10,667
Germany
LewieP said:
j9pijAd.png


uk.ign.com

Deus Ex 2 - IGN

Not only did the original Deus Ex walk away with our own Game of the Year Award; it even managed to snag the same honor from our readers. By all accounts Warren Spector's open-ended take on action and role-playing games was a huge boost for the industry. The fact that it was set in a dark...
uk.ign.com uk.ign.com
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh god

edit: also inb4 the Kojima hottakes i can already smell
 
Dark Ninja

Dark Ninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,070
This is great to see from someone who has been highlighted by a company understand this. Ive worked with other highlighted people from different companies and this is lost on them.
 
JABEE

JABEE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,850
It feels like he should mention some of their names too. It feels like that would be pretty important for historical purposes.
 
Rover

Rover

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,414
If a game is good, it was a community effort

If the game is bad, it's all one person's fault
 
OP
OP
Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
JABEE said:
It feels like he should mention some of their names too. It feels like that would be pretty important for historical purposes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That would be good; related to that but I love the fact that EPD Tokyo credited everyone in alphabetical order on Super Mario Odyssey.
 
Nisaba

Nisaba

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,940
Canada
I always enjoy reading or hearing his insights, one of the true greats. <3
His emphasis on creation being a collaborative process is humble but at the same time, I'm glad he's played such a lead role in making the games that I love.
 
Big G

Big G

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,604
LewieP said:
j9pijAd.png


uk.ign.com

Deus Ex 2 - IGN

Not only did the original Deus Ex walk away with our own Game of the Year Award; it even managed to snag the same honor from our readers. By all accounts Warren Spector's open-ended take on action and role-playing games was a huge boost for the industry. The fact that it was set in a dark...
uk.ign.com uk.ign.com
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Came to post this picture too, haha.
 
Tora

Tora

The Enlightened Wise Ones
Member
Jun 17, 2018
8,637
It'll always be a thing.

GOW - Cory Barlog
Smash - Sakurai
TLOU - Druckmann
Zelda - Aonuma

It's just one of those things, I don't associate the success of a game behind one name but I appreciate how much of an influence that they have on it.
 

Deleted member 8593

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
27,176
Games are made by multiple people. And yet he still could have made Halo by himself.

The man is a fucking legend.
 
smurfx

smurfx

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,578
yeah games are a group effort but they still need a leader with the skills to make the right decisions and move the project along. miyamoto definitely deserves the credit he's gotten as his team and him have a stellar record.
 

NazoNazoXLR

Member
Dec 20, 2019
290
I'm not sure all the Kojima heat is particularly well deserved. While his name was plastered all over MGS5, he was also in a war with his publisher at the time, and it's not like his name was the only one plastered everywhere. I wouldn't say that he has absolutely no ego, but it's not like he tried to get "A Hideo Kojima game" pasted on Metal Gear Rising, for instance.

But then again I also remember that cats like Itagaki and Randy Pitchford are out there, or the time a bunch of PC developers decided to call themselves GOD, so maybe I'm grading on a fairly lenient curve
 
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,663
Boston, MA
"We don't just simply make sequels"

"[…] Even though Super Mario games make a series, we don't just simply make sequels; we make one when a new technology shows up. For example, one when a Mega ROM with large capacity showed up, and then one when CPU processing speed has become 16-bit. Once we've seen new ideas and materials that can be realized with a new hardware, we make it. As a result of piling that up, I think it's able to get valued continuously."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This quote hit me more than the other parts of the interview.

I've always wondered why Nintendo never considered making remasters of renowned Nintendo classics, and some of the times, I would observe others arguing why Nintendo should not make sequels and make remasters instead. and so forth.

I can definitely say that Nintendo sees "new technology = new game", no blurred lines in between the equal sign.
 
Cian

Cian

One Winged Slayer
Member
Feb 17, 2018
576
all of the Hideo Kojima mentions are funny because MGSV is literally the only game I can think of where each individual mission of the game credits who worked on that specific mission
 
udivision

udivision

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,031
Shigeru "I could've personally made Halo myself with no help but I didn't want to" Miyamoto tryin' to be humble? PFF, I aint falling for your wiley ways maaaan.
 
Otnopolit

Otnopolit

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,590
Happens with movies, makes sense that the "visionary" is credited. I'd say it's just shorthand but I don't think it is, we tend to see these people as monolithic.
 
Aaronrules380

Aaronrules380

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
22,427
I feel like japanese devs in particular would be averse to claiming auteur status for their games due to the nature of the culture over there stressing the collective over the individual and emphasizing humility even if it's only surface level. Though obviously this isn't true for all Japanese devs as we can clearly see with guys like Kojima
 
thomasmahler

thomasmahler

Game Director at Moon Studios
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
1,097
Vienna / Austria
And he is very, very correct. If you make games as a single person, if you want to make something that has a chance of making a dent, you'll undoubtedly spend many, many, many years on the project and even then you'll never reach the same fidelity that a team of great talent can. That's just impossible, no matter how good you are.

By now Nintendo sometimes has 300+ people working on a single game - It's a bit nutty for one person to claim all the recognition. Games are a result of a great team of talent coming together to create something, it doesn't work any other way.

I know for press and the general public it's simpler and sexier to have one face associated with a piece of work, but isn't it much more wholesome to drive the general consensus that a great game is always the result of many people often from many different cultures coming together to create a thing?
 
chrisypoo

chrisypoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,457
thomasmahler said:
And he is very, very correct. If you make games as a single person, if you want to make something that has a chance of making a dent, you'll undoubtedly spend many, many, many years on the project and even then you'll never reach the same fidelity that a team of great talent can. That's just impossible, no matter how good you are.

By now Nintendo sometimes has 300+ people working on a single game - It's a bit nutty for one person to claim all the recognition. Games are a result of a great team of talent coming together to create something, it doesn't work any other way.

I know for press and the general public it's simpler and sexier to have one face associated with a piece of work, but isn't it much more wholesome to drive the general consensus that a great game is always the result of many people often from many different cultures coming together to create a thing?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well said.
 
Elfforkusu

Elfforkusu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,098
tbh the one I think of is Sakurai, not Kojima.

From the way people talk you'd think he programmed every line of code of every Smash game. HAL Labs? Who?
 
Asbsand

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
And then you have your Kojimas and Casey Hudson's and whatnot that claim to be the genius behind their games until the talented co-workers that also defined their successes depart and their output looks more questionable than ever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.