Shigeru Miyamoto views games as products, not art

Smashgoom202

Dry Bowser
Retired Wiki Staff
I just saw someone mention this article:

http://gamez.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/0910/27/news082_3.html

Since it's in Japanese I can't tell for sure, but the guy who brought it up pointed out one quote from the article:

Shigeru Miyamoto said:
"What we have created are not an art but products. For us, the most important are the customers and not games themselves. I always tell staff to call Nintendo games products, not an art."
 
As we've seen with the half-assed NSMBW (which could obviously have been FAR better), this is quite true. For instance, NSMBW could easily have been bigger than Galaxy 2, and instead they made a game smaller than the less powerful Super Mario World.
 
I thought it was pretty damn awesome! ...Or maybe that's just the Koopalings talking... In either case, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a better example of half-assed-ness, with it literally being an expansion of the first Super Mario Galaxy.
 
Super Mario Sunshine, anyone?
 
Hard Man said:
As we've seen with the half-assed NSMBW (which could obviously have been FAR better), this is quite true. For instance, NSMBW could easily have been bigger than Galaxy 2, and instead they made a game smaller than the less powerful Super Mario World.

Ugh yes nsmbwii had a horrible engine and mediocre level design at best, also suffered from god awful ost. Instant failure.

Hell yeah, it was different. No Goombas, weird-looking Koopas, a somewhat different plot (for once), FLUDD, Piantas, and VOICE ACTING. Definitely not what we expected.

Uh who cares about the plot its a mario game, they're not even decent in rpgs, let alone a platformer. Plus that game was very experimental anyway, alot of gcn games were. Luigi's mansion, metroid prime, baiten kaitos, final fantasy crystal chronicles, to name a few.

Anyway something being art is subjective, but it's not a big deal.
 
I say video game making is actually an art, no matter how people call it. How people use their creativity to create worlds, stories, and characters sounds like art.

Of course, some games (I'm looking at you, Super Mario Galaxy 2) could be called products, but even they can have beautiful scenery and backgrounds. It makes me wonder how long they spent on artwork like the boxart.

BTW, I loved NSMBWii. The 4 player thing was awesome.
 
That sucks, because I really do appreciate games. I pay attention to the background music, the scenery, etc. I love Super Mario Galaxy's music, for instance, and I hack Mario Kart Wii mostly to replace its crappy soundtrack.
 
So they're calling it a "product" because they think that their customers are more important than their games? It makes no sense. Video games are definitely a work of art. It takes a lot of creativity to make them and it's not easy making a good game. The backgrounds and the music are all works of art. Video games are not just products.
 
Fawfulfury65 said:
So they're calling it a "product" because they think that their customers are more important than their games? It makes no sense. Video games are definitely a work of art. It takes a lot of creativity to make them and it's not easy making a good game. The backgrounds and the music are all works of art. Video games are not just products.

This really depends on your perspective.

It may be a work for art for you but to them it's nothing more then a selling point for them.

As I said before the view of video games as art is really subjective.

Also creativity is really a double edged sword on its own, it can break or destroy a game, even if it's seen as creative, it can destroy a game entirely.
 
Fawfulfury65 said:
So they're calling it a "product" because they think that their customers are more important than their games? It makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense. Nintendo is a company. Companies make things that sell so they can make money. It's this newfangled thing they call capitalism.

It boggles the mind that this many people are surprised that a massive company like Nintendo is not primarily concerned with making art.
 
Herr Shyguy said:
Fawfulfury65 said:
So they're calling it a "product" because they think that their customers are more important than their games? It makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense. Nintendo is a company. Companies make things that sell so they can make money. It's this newfangled thing they call capitalism.

It boggles the mind that this many people are surprised that a massive company like Nintendo is not primarily concerned with making art.

It's not surprising at all, but they don't have to choose one. Once again, New Super Mario Bros. Wii has as many levels and is actually easier than Super Mario Bros. 3, yet costs 10 times more. Nintendo can do better than that, even if I did like NSMBW. But guess which game I had more fun with?
 
And yet as far as I know, NSMBW sold pretty well. I agree that it was sloppy but that probably means it cost them less money to make it, which means bigger profits. You can't blame a company for doing that.
 
NSMBW beats SMB3 at multiplayer experiences. That's the main reason I play it more than I want to play SMB3
 
I really do like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, One of the funnest multiplayer games and took me a while to 100%. I get the classic games on virtual Console but really, I can never grip on people saying theyre better. Obviously its all opinion but I play for a bit and then its just... boring, to say the least, I havent touched SMB3 on my Wii ever since I got it. This is all a matter of opinion though.

On-Topic: I'd say with all the work put into the games, they deserve to be called art.
 
I consider video games to be both, actually. A product and a work of art
 
Yeah, why does Nintendo make fairly short Mario games nowadays? So they want our money so we can come back for more?
 
Mr. Miyamoto even continues as follows. 「僕らは常に、未来の理想に向けてではなく、今やれる最高のことだけを目指してきた。常にがむしゃらに、目先のことを追い続けてきただけなんです」(宮本氏) "We always ideal for the future rather than have only the best aiming now fuckable. Always harder, I just have continued to pursue the short term"


...
 
I saw google translate a Japanese word into the S word one time in Brawl Dojo.

Honestly, I'd laugh if that translation was accurate.
 
Ornithologist Mario said:
Yeah, why does Nintendo make fairly short Mario games nowadays? So they want our money so we can come back for more?

Mario games have never been real long in all honesty. Platformers in general are not anyway.

Not even the mario rpgs could be placed into the category of "long".
 
Zae said:
Ornithologist Mario said:
Yeah, why does Nintendo make fairly short Mario games nowadays? So they want our money so we can come back for more?

Mario games have never been real long in all honesty. Platformers in general are not anyway.

Not even the mario rpgs could be placed into the category of "long".

I don't mean long, but I beat NSMBW in only a few hours without warps, the same time it took to defeat SMB3 and less than what it took to defeat SMW or NSMB.

And the YI games are a bit longer, no?
 
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