Shigeru Miyamoto knows what his priorities are at Nintendo, and he doesn't see online gaming as number one. Asked about an overall decline in game sales in 2009, the Mario and Zelda franchise mastermind blamed a shortage of fun new products rather than pointing at the global economy. The recently announced Nintendo 3DS system will be a platform to watch to see if Miyamoto's theories hold true, as he seems to be looking back to the Wii's success in an attempt to recapture that scale of traction for his company.
"The fact that in 2009 we were not able to sell more than we did in 2008 was simply that in comparison, we were not able to produce fun-enough products," Miyamoto told The Economist. "There are always ups and downs in the business. As long as we create unique and unprecedented experiences with video games, there should be nothing to worry about."
The industry sage acknowledged criticism that Nintendo has lagged behind its competitors in the console world when it comes to network play, but he cited improvements made on the Wii as evidence that they have taken steps to cultivate multiplayer games in recent years, even if online multiplayer elements fell behind entertainment on his priority list.
"Starting from the launch of the Wii, we became more proactive," Miyamoto explained. "I think it is obvious that when everyone is connected online, there will be enormous opportunity for me to create something really unique. But my job is to try to entertain as many people as possible, and I see all Wii owners as the audience. Of course, we have 'Mario Kart,' which can be played online by multiple people. So we are gradually expanding the experiences using the internet, but my own personal focus is to try to entertain people, even if they are not connected to the Internet. That is my first priority."
Nintendo has won its victories this decade on its own terms thus far, so I don't see much reason to doubt Miyamoto's resolve looking ahead to 2011.
Do you agree with Miyamoto's outlook on Nintendo's strategy and the game industry broadly? How do you think Nintendo will perform in the coming years? Share your predictions in the comment section below.