He's one of a few. You can't forget the other Nintendo biggie, the guy that did Kid Icarus, etc. I can't remember his name now.

Nintendo have many talented people who have done lots to the gaming industry, another one was gunpey yokoi who invented the gameboy.

masayaki uemura is another name that deserves mention.but technology can never better innovation.i know Gunpei Yokoi was behind Metroid but that was much after mario and was a side scroller with its own set of additions to the pre-existing concept.

im sorry i may come off as a Miyamoto fanboy(its true actually)

Yeah, Nintendo were stacked with talent back in the day.

I am sure that a recovery from the crash would happen eventually, and probably sooner than later.

HOWEVER. Even today we have very few (if any) game designers the caliber of Miyamoto. The recovery surely happened faster because of this, and who can deny that he has shaped the face of gaming even to this day?

Whether or not you think the recovery would have happened eventually (I think it would have), you can't escape the fact that the industry is still feeling his hand on the market, and I think in that way it is fair to call him the father of the gaming industry.

Miyamoto is well known because he was always working on many innovative ideas, since he doesn't look at games from a developer's point of view. and that brought to life some of the most well known franchises in gaming history.

There are other great game developers in Nintendo at that time, but Miyamoto is most known.

Nintendo's sales and marketing team is what saved the industry in the US. By 1984, all US retailers had reallocated all video game shelf space to other products and refused to carry video games because of the crash in '83. The crash was a result of a flooded market. Far too many consoles and games with low quality.

Nintendo convinced a New York retailer to stock the NES on the grounds they'd buy back unsold product. They also established two other major notions of importance. A. A Seal of Quality to ensure good product. B. It was called the Nintendo "Entertainment System" and not a video game console.

Of course it sold well enough to garner the attention of other major retailers and eventually mass distribution across the US took hold and we all know it from there.


European retailers tried to immunize themselves from the crash by campaigning for computer based products like the Commodore64. By disassociating itself from a pure video game console, they sold very well in Europe even during the US crash. Also note this is the same philosophy Nintendo used to get the NES to retail despite the fact it truly was just a video game console and not a computer.


How would it have been different if Nintendo were not so bullish on the retailer in NY? Most likely the Commodore64 would have become more popular which would have lead to a more PC based gaming industry. Some European countries are still heavily PC based to this day because of it.

The father of gaming was and always will be Ralph Baer. This man brought about gamings genesis. Miyamoto is but one in a string of individuals that has refined gaming. Do not confuse a gaming superstar with gamings creator. A better analogy is to see Miyamoto as one of gamings prophets.

Further more Miyamoto is one of the more quixotic prophets. His noble goals often overlook the practical necessities of the industry. Often enough frustrating progress, and at other times actually hurting the industry. Miyamoto is a very one dimensional character without others in the industry countering his pull is the past the situation today might be more dire, and we might even be talking about the gaming collapse of the mid nineties.

Without others pulling the console industry in to more mature directions today almost everyone would be playing on the PC exclusively. We would refer to consoles as something very young children use rather then adults. I know I will get lambasted for it, but there is only so much E for everyone gameplay that a grown adult can stomach. That is what Miyamoto specializes in. Had Miyamoto not been aggressively opposed he would have driven the hardware and the software into the ground.

While you may ponder all the good he has done the industry. Take time and notice some of the epic failures he has produced. His dogged determination to follow his vision has quite often lead Nintendo down some dark paths.

Dodece

I agree with you that Baer is the chief innovator in the video game industry, but the odyssey could not garner the mass appeal which a few years later made atari 2600 a success.mass appeal was what drove nintendo to the top, and revived,not started ,the gaming industry(Baer surely gets that credit).

you must realise the industry today is much diff from what Baer had started ,but Miyamotos work still holds relevence(even among mature gamers).you can call Baer the mother of gaming,but one who couldnt sustain it at all.i mean gaming is about providing an enjoyable experience above everything else, and im yet to see someone bettering miyahon at that(all mature,realistic games included)

and following his vision isnt hurting nintendo one bit this generation,dont you think? just shows that if you have a winner,  keep betting on him even if he loses a race

Personally, I think if miyamoto didn't do what he did over 2 decades ago, someone else would have (either slower or faster, better or worse etc).

Fact that he did though, I would consider Miyamoto to be the father of modern day gaming (considering games can technically stretch as far back as checkers/chess/card games) because he did start the era of gaming we are in today (with Super Mario Bros), despite not actually being the person to make the first "game" as we know the word to be today.