Miyamoto - wasn’t too sure about Wii

Plus, hints at face-mapping functionality

Posted by Staff
A report over on CNN earlier today, throws up some interesting comments from Nintendo’s creative wizard, Shigeru Miyamoto.

The man responsible for the greatest videogaming experiences of our age - Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong – told CNN’s Chris Morris: "When we first thought about it, myself and others felt that the name Revolution was very appropriate to what we were doing… but [Revolution] is a name that was almost threatening to non-gamers. It wasn't acceptable. So we thought this was more friendly and inviting."

Miyamoto went on to admit that the Wii name was finalized more than six months before it was announced to a somewhat stunned gaming world, as well as the rest of the world (Nintendo’s new target!), who just got on with their business as usual.

SPOnG, it should be pointed out, was one of the few videogame news outlets that actually didn’t mind the name too much when we first heard it. Despite numerous protestations from our many friends in the industry, accusing us of taking a pro-Wii stance ‘just to be different’.

Anyways, that’s all water under the bridge (Wii under the bridge? – Ed *snigger) and whilst we will no doubt hear a bladder-full of Wii jokes as the marketing campaign is rolled out later in the year, the name is here to stay, despite the hardest of the hardcore fanboys still petitioning for it to be changed (give it up guys!)

Going on to speak about Sony’s amazing motion-sensor idea stealing antics, Miyamoto told CNN that he wasn't as surprised as some others: "We kind of expected it…. It reinforces for us that we've been on the right path all along… ... On the flipside, I suppose they must be worried about any other functionality we may announce."

Tantalisingly speaking about this ‘other functionality’ Miyamoto made some comments relating to the E3 demonstration, whereby his, Reggie Fils-Aime’s and Satoru Iwata’s faces were mapped onto players of Wii Tennis, saying: "we have some different ideas about how to take advantage of that functionality – and we will be sharing that type of functionality with third parties."

Speaking of the vast difference in graphical quality between current Wii titles and those titles currently in development for Xmas releases on PS3 and Xbox 360 Miyamoto added: "Obviously, graphics are what the other two companies are doing. I think what we'll do for Wii is show people open interaction. ... We're designing a system that's relevant to everyone in the house. Our hope is that Wii will be something different."



Comments

Ditto 24 May 2006 18:52
1/1
People's faces mapped onto characters - rewind back to SpaceWorld 1998!
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