Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is looking ahead to the future of video games, and he sees less segregation between the game console and everyday life.
"I think originally video-game systems were viewed as a toy, and they were something you played with," Miyamoto
told Popular Mechanics. "Whereas now, I think we're starting to see a blurring of the lines, where, obviously, the internal guts of a video-game system is essentially a computer, and we're gradually seeing video games moving beyond simply entertainment into other aspects of everyday life."
He sees interface as continuing to be the primary driver of increased accessibility and lifestyle integration for games: "I think what video games benefit from is an intuitive interface that's easy to understand, where the controller is a little bit more familiar and easier to use than the interface of a typical computer," he says. "As time goes on, I think we're going to see how the system of the video-game console and this interactive interface is going to gradually bleed in to other elements of, say, home electronics and daily life."
"For example, in Japan the Wii itself has a TV guide channel that Wii owners can download to their Wii. And for a lot of people in Japan who own a Wii, that TV guide channel is a lot more convenient and easier to use than a typical TV guide service."
Interface, of course, has played a major role in the massive proliferation of the motion-controlled, user-friendly Wii console, success Miyamoto chalks up to the Wii Remote and its new enhancing Motion Plus accessory: "What we've been able to do is introduce an interface that is both I think appealing and at the right price for a broad audience."
Miyamoto also says Nintendo has yet to formulate a vision for the future of its hardware, but knows it wants to make it even more accessible: "What I can say is that, my guess is that because we found this interface to be so interesting, I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient."
