News: Miyamoto: Gaming was Lacking in 2009 Page 1

Miyamoto: Gaming was Lacking in 2009

2008 was a solid year for gaming and 2010 is shaping up nicely, however last year wasn't as strong and Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledges this.

Nintendo home consoles have always been susceptible to the "first-party" virus where generally first and second party Nintendo games are the system sellers and a large reason why fans stick to the House of Mario.

The Wii has overcome some of these obstacles with decent third party offerings, but Nintendo needed to provide its own big sellers to push sales and satisfy cravings for existing Wii owners. In 2009 there was barely a drop from Nintendo on the Wii - we had New! Super Mario Bros and Wii Fit Plus as the two big hitters, but not much else.

Speaking to The Economist, Miyamoto accepted that 2009 wasn't a good year for the Wii, and that Nintendo themselves weren't "able to produce fun-enough products". He is hopeful for a recovery this year, and that "As long as we create unique and unprecedented experiences with video games, there should be nothing to worry about."

What do you think of Nintendo's performance with the Wii last year? Are you pleased with what's available and what's to come in 2010?

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JoshSL 25.03.2010#1

Well atleast he acknowledged it, hopefully he won't let it happen again Smilie

2010 is shaping up rather nicely tbh, so let's just hope that it doesn't slip next year with another quiet year. Keep the big titles rolling at a nice pace!

Spirit Tracks was awesome though, and the WM+ will hopefully be used more commonly soon.

( Edited 25.03.2010 14:41 by SuperLink )

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erv 25.03.2010#2

Nintendo should have some great one stop shop sellers left on wii? There's already enough franchising going on, but still...

I like how 2010 is shaping up though. I feel as though red steel 2 is kicking things off decently, with a no more heroes and a other m and sin n punishment and definitely a mario galaxy 2 on my buy list.

But yeah, nintendo themselves might want to up the ante Smilie

Darkflame 25.03.2010#3

I still dont think Nintendo has as much control over what makes a strong or weak year as people think.
Games take about 3 years to make...give or take a year, and give or take 6 months of delays etc.

If to make a strong year we need, say 3 great games, I don't think its achievable for Nintendo alone to do that. Developments just too unpredictable, imho.

They could license stuff out more. Give their secondary IPs to more 3rd party's...like they did on the cube.
But its still unknown if your going to end up with something great or not.

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SatoriSatya 25.03.2010#4

* MIYAMOTO MISQUOTE ALERT *

Cubed3, just like Kotaku, 1up and other gaming sites, I believe you got this story wrong.

Miyamoto was asked about how the video game industry fared in 2009 compared to how it did in 2008. He was NOT asked about how Nintendo did that year.

The article itself makes the point that Miyamoto was speaking about the gaming industry specifically:

"...Perhaps most striking was his suggestion that the drop in sales of video games in 2009 compared with 2008 (down 6.3% worldwide, according to Screen Digest) might simply have been due to an inferior crop of games, rather than the recession. After all, 2008 was a particularly good year for the industry, and thus a hard act to follow..."

At the beginning of the article, the Economist also sums up the interview by saying that Miyamoto discussed the "state of the industry" among other issues. And he talked about the industry when he was asked this question:

"How do you interpret the slowdown in sales in 2009? Wasn’t gaming meant to be recession-proof?"

Thus in his reply, Miyamoto went on to explain the state of the gaming industry in 2009 (that is, answering the dang question he was given):

"we (the gaming industry) were not able to sell more than we did in 2008 was simply that in comparison, we were not able to produce fun-enough products. There are always ups and downs in this business..."

NOTE: I hope that nobody forgot that the video game industry revenue in 2009 was actually lower than it was in 2008 (2008: $21.4 billion - 2009: $19.66 billion).

When you consider all the above, you will realize that almost the entire gaming media got Miyamoto wrong... again.

( Edited 25.03.2010 18:36 by SatoriSatya )