Shigeru Miyamoto May Want To Develop New Games
Film making has the gaming legend preoccupied, but Miyamoto is likely not out of ideas
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
10/25/20263 min read
The father of some of the planet's most beloved and recognizable characters like Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, and Olimar, Shigeru Miyamoto may not be quite finished with the gaming side of things. The legendary game designer and director recently received the Japanese Order of Culture, an award granted to individuals for their works in Japan's art, science, technology, and literature. This makes him the first person in the field of video games to be honored with this achievement.
Following the ceremony, he sat for a Q&A press conference with Denfaminico Gamer, and he shared his thoughts on a broad range of topics. When asked about his future prospects, he noted that recent experiences with movies have occupied a great deal of his time. But his knack for video games have not abandoned the veteran director.
"I don't know what the future holds (laughs). Right now I'm engrossed in filmmaking, working with professionals, but I also want to see how far I can go on my own. And in the process, I might try making something like a game again.
With the evolution of digital media, work has become more complex, but at the same time, some aspects can be done more quickly. As long as I'm motivated, I want to try various things, and since we're talking about "originality," I'm thinking of doing something that we don't usually do at Nintendo and surprising the employees ."
Miyamoto, 73, may not be as hands-on with game directing and design all too much, he still serves as executive producer on software like Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4. In recent years, the focus has shifted to executive roles in a lot of Nintendo's multimedia endeavors, like the Super Mario Bros. movies and the upcoming The Legend of Zelda film, set to hit theaters in 2027 (April 20th).
His thoughts on A.I. also inferred that human ingenuity can't be fully replaced by the autonomy that this wave of Generative "production" provides users, especially in the field of video games.
"That's a very broad question. To tell you a little about the past, computers came out around the time of our generation, and tools evolved rapidly, from typewriters to word processors, he replied. "For example, designers learn a technique called "lettering," which involves writing beautiful text on posters, at school. In the past, if you could do that, you could be called a designer. Even just translating popular overseas designs into Japanese and laying them out was enough to be called a designer.
However, as computers and word processors evolved, we could copy and paste text from anywhere, import images from anywhere, and even have them write neatly. It was only when these tools took over the technical aspects that a person's individual design ability, such as a sense of layout, began to come to the forefront. As a result, even if the husband was a designer and the wife did the housework, it often turned out that "the wife actually had superior design abilities." That's what it means for tools to change.
I think that's what's happening with generative AI right now. We always distinguish between "creating" and "working." When we want to create something, we first create the overall structure. From there, filling in the gaps and finishing it neatly is the "work. This is the tricky part; the work itself is enjoyable. When you're working, you get a tremendous sense of satisfaction from "creating" something. But the scary thing is that you become so satisfied with the work that you mistakenly think, "I've made something pretty good ."
Therefore, the more AI becomes capable of handling various tasks, the more opportunities it will give everyone to seriously consider what it truly means to "create." I think that's a very good thing."
What are your thoughts on Miyamoto's A.I. stance? He appears to take a position that indicates that human ingenuity is far from finished, and we have a lesson to learn what design means.