I think he's so good at designing successful games because he doesn't like them so much.  Unlike everyone else in the industry, he doesn't seem to play games that much. 

Most developers join the videogame industry because they love videogames and they want to make their videogames. Videogames are both their work and leisure.

Miyamoto was just some guy who was working at a company who branched out.  He doesn't really want to make his games, he just wants to make games... and since he isn't making them for himself... he's making them for everybody else.

He often gets an idea or concept for a game, and then his development process appears to be to develop stuff, bring in outsiders and force them to play, and find out anything and everything that doesn't work and change it.

Since he isn't particularly attached to any of it, there are now sacred cows.  Now it can't all be that obviously, no amount of changing is going to turn a piece of crap into gold... but I think this is a BIG part of why he is behind so many 10 million sellers instead of 2-3 million sellers.

Now... what happens if Miyamoto has a game that he wants to make?  A game, like most developers that is "His" game?

Miyamoto... an avid musicisan REALLY wanted to make Wii music.  He really likes playing guitar.

http://www.gamespot.com/users/bretikur/video_player?id=cnw7lDSr5bgOujfb

It was a product he really got attached to... and well ok it still has sold nearly 3 million copies, but it's less then they thought it would sell.

I think it's his weird combination of being a creative person who is somewhat detached from his work, that makes it so easy for him to create MASSIVE sellers.  Sort of a Zen designing process where everything is forgotten except what you get from expiermenting with players.

I think you are right, though I will add on the qualifier that he apparently does play games after they've been made to make sure that they play well. According to reports, the man is a monster at Mario platformers.

Supposedly he was very good at making toys which is why they hired him in the first place, he's good at understanding people and making things that elicit positive responses from them.

Yeah, I was thinking the same for quite a while.

Unlike many game designers Miyamoto is not a gamer, I'm pretty much sure that any 12 year old is more informed about gaming and more concerned with it. Hell, even I am better expert about past, present and future of gaming than Miyamoto. But unlike me, Miyamoto seems to be a great observer, who able to "separate the wheat from the chaff". There're was interview where he was asked about his inspiration of Super Mario Galaxy, interviewer pointed out some similarities between SMG and R&C spherical worlds. Miyamoto was a bit confused, he never ever heard about R&C =)

Miyamoto usually speaks simply, not using special terms, and as a result people usually dismiss his opinion rather easily with little thought. There're numerous interviews where the man meant quite more than he actually said. Once he was asked about his inspiration of Zelda, and on side note he mentioned so called "miniature gardens", but the translator got it wrong so I didn't pay attention until I read the original. For those interested there's a whole book on concept of "miniature gardens" in game design by Chaim Gingold.

I think that was pretty good take on the subject.

Argument is invalid.

He made Wii Music for himself but also made Wii Fit for himself. The sales difference is dramatic.

In fact, a large portion of his entire portfolio of titles can be attributed to something he enjoyed or was inspired by. He watched the movie Legend and mixed with some childhood fantasies, he makes Zelda. He get's a new puppy and makes a game around training it. His gardening hobby became Pikmin. Archways in a nearby garden inspired the idea behind StarFox.

And on and on.

Simply a genius.

There's a difference between being inspired by things in your life and making games for yourself. I think only Wii Music and Wii Fit could arguably have been "for himself", but still in starkly different ways. Wii Fit may be a tool he could use and enjoy himself, as could anyone else, but Wii Music was a way to allow others to share in his love of creating things, and music specifically. While I don't think it was a game for himself in the way many Western devs make games for themselves and people like them, his motivations with Wii Music did seem quite different than his motivations with other games he's made.

I think you've got the right idea. He's so tuned out of what the industry's doing, and i think that helps a good deal too, which is why his games tend to avoid feature creep.

interesting.i hadn[t thought of that before, but there is a tendency to be blinded by the things you hold dear. If he is approaching from a different angle his blind spots could be different.