I'm not doing anymore "assumptions" when it comes to Nintendo.

I was an early adopter of the wii u with assumptions like: third party will be decent (not necessarily the best), there wouldn't be droughts, and that we'd get an exclusive Zelda, animal crossing, and metroid.

That being said, I will be checking to see if they are able to make a comeback with the NX

Read some comments here, its an interesting conversation.

I think Miyamoto's involvement and success rate is a decent reflection of Nintendo as a whole. Some things to consider. Because Iwata was a developer himself and yet above Miyamoto, you could say that in the time he was CEO, the creative guys were running the shop. Since the top guys decided to focus on innovation on the hardware level with the game-pad being the focus, yet staying in line with Nintendos other values in terms of price competitiveness, there had to be drawbacks in terms of horse power to the Wii-U. Now since the gamepad is the only competitive advantage to the Wii-U+Nintendo IP, Miyamoto's reason for 'forcing/innovating' game mechanics to mold them into the gamepad was the only option moving forward. Sadly this sometimes works [found it awesome in AC4:BF] and sometimes goes horribly wrong as some others point out in Starfox. Couple that with the issue that the system is under-powered and shunned by most AAA publishers/developers and you have a recipe for where we are at today.

I sold my Wii-U about a year ago for the above reasons, even though I had some fun with the thing.

On the other hand, its very hard as a developer on the top level to stay successful consistently. Look at EA and their sports titles, every few years even they mess it up, even though its the same damn game.  Nintendo must not just innovate on mechanics as is their tradition, but innovate everywhere: mechanics, graphics [lightyears behind engine tech], hardware HP, aesthetics/art, fresh game design concepts [splatoon not originated internally afaik], not just rehashed tweaks of their own.

-M

I agree a lot about what Nintendo should do, but their current trend is not their tradition. Back in they day, Zelda, Donkey kong country, Starfox, Mario Kart, Mario where AAA, top noch games in every aspect. Zelda didn't have any nostalgic feeling, it was best in the genre in term of everything graphics, musics, effects, gameplay, length, running on a very efficient hardware. I mean it would take someone like Carmack to prove that a PC was capable of doing a scrolling as good as Mario.

So, anyway for me Miyamoto (can't tell if he changed, if the company changed, or if he changed the company) lost it when he stopped doing the best games, stop competiting and started focusing on niche markets based on "new gameplay, new idea" (which also mean tight budgets, low risk, potential high rentability games). I believe it is around the N64/GC failures, more than 10 years ago.

This is exactly how I see it (and most people don't understand this). Thank you for this post. Back then when they released for instance Mario 3, A link to the past, Yoshi's story, mario 64 or Ocarina of time, they were indeed producing top notch games in every categories: innovation, gameplay, graphics (with big and open levels), sound, etc. They produced ambitious games in all categories.

Back then when Ocarina released it was one of the best looking 3D game out there, even comparing with PC games. A bit like now when we compare UC4 with PC games running at 4K.

It all began with the Gamecube IMO. Because of their unwillingness to adapt to modern gaming development. I still remember Tachikoma posting about how backward their software teams were in pretty much all aspects of modern videogame development. 

And we know better understand why: Because modern videogame development of AAA games is VERY expensive. Even if some of the heads are genuine creative guys Nintendo as a greedy corporation want easy money like what they did with the Wii (which was an overclocked Gamecube). But it won't work again.

This is exactly how I see it (and most people don't understand this). Thank you for this post. Back then when they released for instance Mario 3, A link to the past, Yoshi's story, mario 64 or Ocarina of time, they were indeed producing top notch games in every categories: innovation, gameplay, graphics (with big and open levels), sound, etc. They produced ambitious games in all categories.

Back then when Ocarina released it was one of the best looking 3D game out there, even comparing with PC games. A bit like now when we compare UC4 with PC games running at 4K.

It all began with the Gamecube IMO. Because of their unwillingness to adapt to modern gaming development. I still remember Tachikoma posting about how backward their software teams were in pretty much all aspects of modern videogame development. 

And we know better understand why: Because modern videogame development of AAA games is VERY expensive. Even if some of the heads are genuine creative guys Nintendo as a greedy corporation want easy money like what they did with the Wii (which was an overclocked Gamecube). But it won't work again.

This is exactly how I see it (and most people don't understand this). Thank you for this post. Back then when they released for instance Mario 3, A link to the past, Yoshi's story, mario 64 or Ocarina of time, they were indeed producing top notch games in every categories: innovation, gameplay, graphics (with big and open levels), sound, etc. They produced ambitious games in all categories.

Back then when Ocarina released it was one of the best looking 3D game out there, even comparing with PC games. A bit like now when we compare UC4 with PC games running at 4K.

It all began with the Gamecube IMO. Because of their unwillingness to adapt to modern gaming development. I still remember Tachikoma posting about how backward their software teams were in pretty much all aspects of modern videogame development. 

And we know better understand why: Because modern videogame development of AAA games is VERY expensive. Even if some of the heads are genuine creative guys Nintendo as a greedy corporation want easy money like what they did with the Wii (which was an overclocked Gamecube). But it won't work again.

The ony one making an assumption here is you.

Go read the company IR reports to see who role Miyamoto plays with the company, what departments he oversees and how things have changed over the years. Check the credits for each game.  See who is listed as designers, directors and producers.   Go find out what each of those positions do.

You keep saying these games are his ideas simply because he's their public spokesman for new projects.

I'm not denying the quality of their output no longer having the revolutionary aspect the company used to be known for.  All I'm saying is you can't say Miyomoto has lost his touch when he is no longer is directly involved with development.  Is he great at business decisions?  Maybe...maybe not.   But that's hardly the same thing.

Finally:
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash - Developed by Camelot Software
Star Fox Zero - Developed by Platinum Studios
Star Fox Guard - Developed by Platinum Studios
Zelda: Triforce Heroes - Developed by Grezzo
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam - Developed by Alpha Dream

These are largely licensed titles which is headed by Yoshio Sakamoto, not Miyamoto.

Now you are just setting up an impossible to win situation. I.e. "Miyamoto will never be a bad video game developer because he no longer has a big involvement in developing video games." To this, I call bs.

Why? because if he truly kept his "touch," then why isn't he using it to make inspirational games for the wii u. Surely one of the greatest developers of all time could make ONE game on the wii u to rival the likes of uncharted 4 or overwatch or fallout 4 (if he still has his "touch" that is). We all know that Iwata tasked him with creating gamepad centric games. You can't stretch the truth on this:

http://wiiudaily.com/2014/05/miyamoto-gamepad-games-e3/

Where are these games that he's been working on? At this point, I don't care if he is the producer, lead designer, or janitor. We all know that Miyamoto has always had an influence on the games that have been coming out (most definitely a leadership role). Whether he's been working with platinum or grezzo, he's been WORKING with these guys and his work has thus far been subpar.

Thus far, Masahiro Sakurai has been doing an amazing job (smash bros wii u was phenomenal), and yet I don't discredit him by saying the SoulCalibur team did all the work. Yet many people here are willing to shift the blame from Miyamoto onto other people/teams (it's apparently now platinum's fault that Miyamoto wanted to use 2 screens on starfox). What work has he done that convices you that "he's still got it?" Where is Miyamoto's ocarina of time, wii sports, or mario 64 of this gen? 

His touch was not to make revolutionary games, even if that's what you want to believe. He made great games because he loves games. Why have Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time become so famous? Because they managed to shift from 2D to 3D in a way like no other games before. That was a very difficult task, and Miyamoto and his teams did it. They didn't think beforehand how to make a revolutionary game, they thought about how to keep the spirit of these games and take them to a new technological level. The fact that those games became so famous just shows how well he did. And here comes the big BUT: That's NOT something to expect from every single game that this man makes. It happened more or less as a side-effect because he and his teams understood what was needed to make those franchises work in 3D. Nowadays the only technological steps seem to be finer resolutions and higher fps. This is nothing that challenges this guy. The only really other revolution in gameplay after OoT was Halo for the auto-regeneration, anyway. NO other game ever since has been a true revolution in gameplay. So now you come around and expect Miyamoto to revolutionize gaming with every single project he makes.

You are still under the impression that hsi role with the company is the same now as it was during the N64 days.  It's not.  It's no longer his job to make the next OoT or Mario 64.  Those torches have been passed on and you simply are not understanding this at all.