Miyamoto Talks Zelda, Third-Party Issues

U.S. magazine Entertainment Weekly has conducted a new interview with legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto, in which the Nintendo executive frankly discusses the lack of success of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in Japan and his thoughts on Western franchises such as Halo. Miyamoto, who was recently voted as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine readers, was asked whether he was worried that Nintendo games were two Japanese-centric and potentially out of touch with American consumers. “I could make Halo”, answered Miyamoto, as the game was given as an example of a popular American developed title. “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.” When asked if there were any Nintendo games which had proven a disappointment to him, Miyamoto singled out two GameCube entries in existing Nintendo franchises which were created by third parties. “In the past we've worked with some outside development houses on titles like F-Zero and Star Fox - and let me just say that we were disappointed with the results,” he admitted. “Consumers got very excited about the idea of those games, but the games themselves did not deliver. And, well, 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.” When asked why he thought Twilight Princess had not been a success in Japan, Miyamoto answered: “Well, 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 [due to chronic shortages of the console] 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.”