Mummelmann said:
Miyamoto is a genius in his own right, in my honest opinion, my frustration with the man is mainly from his traditionalist attitudes towards the market. He represents an aging Nintendo who are slowly dying out and being replaced by a younger and more forward thinking one. Basically, him and some others have been behaving as if they still have their dominant 80's and early 90's position in the market, which they clearly don't, and have made choices based on that mindset. He has come around but he's been slow, some would argue too slow. I think I would argue that, in fact. Jumping on the wagon after it has rolled for a long time makes it more difficult to get a good spot, it was the same with HD development, it caused no end of problems for them with the Wii U since they had no experience with it, and caused delay after delay where other developers had long since settled into the pace of higher res games with more effects. I think that what Nintendo need most of all is a new Miyamoto, one that's like he was when he exploded onto the scene and one more attuned with the modern market and its demands and needs. There's nothing wrong with local multiplayer, I happen to love it myself and I also have many fond memories of it, especially on PC and N64 with 4 player sessions. But the market has changed and moved on, and with online having become the norm and Nintendo seemingly wanting to dip their venerable toes in the pools of the mass market once more, they need to look at what the mass market wants and needs and not what Miyamoto wants to keep primarily doing. They seem to have little emphasis on online, their paid service is sounding bleak, they have very poor support for apps, it seems, no voice chat built in, no Netflix, no browser and some pretty poor showings for incentive for paying for their services when this rolls around. Online seems like an afterthought, when the mass market is spending the vast, vast majority of their time online on the phones and tablets, this strikes me as a truly odd choice but very typical in the vein of people like Miyamoto. Releasing a tablet that focuses solely on games and mostly on local multiplayer outside the home seems like a pretty poor idea in such a market. It's not about jumping on trends (which they're heavily doing anyway with their tablet form factor...) but about adapting to the market in general. Long story short; if the Switch fails to become what it could have become, I blame it on people like Miyamoto and his stubborness and refusal to read and respond to the market and instead injecting what he wants into the concepts. And I'm still far from sold on the whole concept and form factor of the Switch on top of this, I can't shake this feeling that making a tablet, one that has barely any actual tablet functionality, is a mistake and that the high number of pre-orders are not indicative of massive lifetime sales, but merely die-hard's fans tired of the Wii U. I guess time will tell, in the meantime, one can always hope that Miyamoto will learn how to tell time... |
Except he's not really involved in developing the Switch. Koizumi is the head producer of the console and Miyamoto has stated the console is being headed by the younger employees. Plus, this is a project that was thought out by the late Iwata. Why are we gonna blame Miyamoto for the failure of the Switch then? Yes he has influence, but it doesn't seem like he's making decisions on the console itself. Koizumi is his protégé, so I'm sure he trusts him on spearheading Switch's future. He even stated that the philosophy is influence by that of Yokoi.
And as for a new Miyamoto, it won't only take someone who knows the Western market, but also has the type of ambition and imagination that Miyamoto provided. Who else would've thought Mario would ultimately become the face of not only Nintendo but one of the faces in video games in general? It's like asking for the new Beatles.