Kasz216,
So with the grill and soda there wouldn't have been a way to find out how people would use it, right? A focus group of 5 or 20 people can not simulate what happens to a product over time as families, communities and society adapt to it. They just had to release it to a wider public and see what happens. I guess there is a difference, because video games are authorative. They tell you a story, let you live in somebody else's imagination (even you can make it your own, sandbox style). Video games are also an emotional product, so basically Miyamoto would not only look if people get the game to "work" (if they learn which button is for jumping and which for shooting), but how their emotional reactions are to each object in the game and if they are having fun.
Hardcore gaming is a bubble economy blown up by Microsoft's $7 $6 billion losses.
