Most of the gaming populace knows about Miyamoto's legendary credentials, but in the real world, no one has any idea who he is.

"Avatar" is burning up the box office right now, and the advertising campaign for the film has made good use of the fact that the movie is from 'James Cameron' director of 'Terminator', 'Titanic' etc.. It's the same with the likes of Spielberg and all the big names.

Nintendo have the biggest name in the Videogame business... so why aren't they using it?

If I were in charge of marketing at Nintendo, I'd advertise 'Pikmin Wii' as being from the man who brought you Mario, Zelda, Wii Sports and Wii Fit. Give the smaller franchises a leg-up by using the Miyamoto brand.

It makes sense. Why don't they do it?

Miyamoto is far too humble for something like that. He doesn't even accept a higher salary than most of his coworkers.

Probably because Miyamoto doesn't want to appear on the games' boxes. But that would be a good idea, even if seeing a Nintendo game generally people know there's a lot of quality in it because of the name "Nintendo".

Because he doesn't want to become a bigger celebrity than he already is. It would be bothersome to his private life.

Hm. Interesting idea, really. But I agree with thekitchensink, Miyamoto, and Nintendo in general, are too humble for anything like that. Can't see it hapening, haha.

My guess is Miyamoto does not like the idea. As I recall, he prefers to work in relative anonymity and let the games speak for themselves. The other reason I can think of is whats the need? Wii Fit has sold ~60 billion copies this month without his name. New Super Mario Bros Wii has sold a paltry 30 billion, but still respect worthy without tacking on another name.

Because he's really shy.

Nintendo isn't a sold dude like James Cameron :P

He's a gentleman.

Because he is trying to satisfy more and more gamers, open up new demographics, etc.
Using his name would mean appealing to a niche of old fans who already care about his games anyways.

Seriously? I need a source on this. Wii Fit alone has grossed over $1.8 BILLION at retail. That is one game that is still selling, and does not include all sales of the game.