EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: shigerumiyamoto
This is a special day for two members of the El33tonline team, as both Wayne and Warren celebrate their birthdays today!
You’ll know Wayne of course for his excellent reviews, previews and event photos, but you may not know that this individual also works tirelessly behind the scenes to keep El33tonline in tip-top shape! Thanks Wayne!
As for Warren, we’re proud to call him a member of the El33t team for his superb reviews and additional contributions. He also does a mean Johnny Depp impression and can trade beans like nobody’s business!
Join us in wishing Wayne and Warren the happiest of birthdays today - it wouldn’t be El33tonline without them!
There’s another legendary game industry fellow who shares his birthday with our El33tonline compatriots, and it’s none other than Nintendo game designer and director, Shigeru Miyamoto! Is it even possible that he turns 59 this year?!
Happy birthday Shigsy!
El33tonline’s Lisa recently partook in a whirlwind tour of New York City while visiting the US on important business, and while taking in the sights and sounds of the Big Apple, she managed to visit the Nintendo World Store, snap some great pictures, and tell us all about the magical and storied location.
Unfortunately, though, Lisa just missed an appearance at the store by Mr. Nintendo himself, the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, as he and a crew of Nintendo executives descended upon the location to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.
As something of a tiny consolation for everyone who missed his appearance at the store (including Lisa), Nintendo has released a fantastic special message from Miyamoto himself speaking about the 25th anniversary, what makes Mario so special, and what Nintendo has planned for fans to help celebrate the massive milestone.
Enjoy:
During Nintendo’s recent shareholder meeting at the company’s headquarters in Kyoto, Japan on Tuesday, a few choice pieces of information emerged regarding possible future directions for star designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s games.
They may seem like throwaway comments… and they probably are, but Miyamoto has a habit of telegraphing what games he’s working on based on the discussion of his hobbies: his interest in gardening lead to the creation of Pikmin. The addition of a dog to the Miyamoto household produced Nintendogs. And when the legendary game developer became obsessed with measuring his waist and weighing himself, Wii Fit was born.
More recently, Miyamoto casually mentioned that he found cats interesting. Lo and behold, Nintendogs + Cats was just announced at E3 2010.
You see where I’m going with this.
So when Miyamoto talks about his hobbies and extra curricular activities, gamers, investors, current shareholders and even other game designers had better take note.
What’s Miyamoto been up to lately?
Oh dear, what a mess! But this is what happens when game news is slow, I guess…
Yesterday, word got out about how much money a few key Japanese videogame industry executives had earned in 2009, thanks to a new rule set out by Japan’s Financial Services Agency.
The rule requires executives at public companies to divulge the particulars of their salaries, if those salaries are greater than ¥100 million ($1.1 million). Naturally, we discovered the salaries of individuals such as Sega Sammy Holdings CEO Osamu Satomi, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada and Namco Bandai Holdings President Kazunori Ueno.
The salary of Nintendo’s very own president, Satoru Iwata, was also disclosed in order to adhere to this new rule, and it turns out that, not only did he earn a base salary of is ¥68 million ($764 000) in 2009, but with performance based bonuses, his earnings last year were boosted to ¥187 million ($2.1 million).
Thanks to a new rule from Japan’s Financial Services Agency requiring executives at public companies to divulge the particulars of their salaries (if those salaries are greater than ¥100 million, or $1.1 million, per year) we now know, more or less, how much money executives at Nintendo (and other game developers) earn annually.
And before you ask: Yes, it’s been an incredibly slow news day.
[Update] Added the first in-game footage from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and a gameplay montage. Catch it below. [End of Update]
During Nintendo’s E3 2010 press conference today, the company’s star designer Shigeru Miyamoto arrived on stage to announce the next Legend of Zelda title for the Wii.
The Mario series of games is well known for its signature musical themes, but the folks at Nintendo really kicked the franchise up a notch with the original Super Mario Galaxy with the move to real recorded instruments, used to perform that game’s myriad of (now) familiar tunes.
This orchestral sound is back for Super Mario Galaxy 2, and provides at least a portion of the magic for this latest entry to the series, with the superb main theme returning to headline the game.
Watch below as the musicians behind the music effortlessly play through this opening theme, with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto in attendance nodding approvingly:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii has released in some parts of the world (Japan and North America), and as with any blockbuster first-party Nintendo title, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata is determined to grill developers involved in the project to find out about their experiences creating the game.
None other than Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto is featured in the latest edition of this interview series (entitled “Iwata Asks”), where the superstar designer talks about the development of Super Mario Galaxy 2, how the project began and how lessons learned during the creation of other games helped inform decisions on this new title.
During the interview, however, Miyamoto makes a curious statement regarding the place of story in a Mario game – specifically, that Mario games may not need or require stories or movies - and continues to chime on this point until he reveals what it is he’s getting at.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has been heavily involved in the world of videogames for quite some time now (going on thirty years), so if there’s anyone who could offer up insightful opinions about trends and marketplace pressures in this industry, it’s him.
So when, in a wide-ranging interview with The Economist, Miyamoto says that 2009’s slowdown in sales in the videogame market can be attributed to the fact that developers and publishers in the industry simply “were not able to produce fun-enough products,” you have to believe there’s an element of truth to the legendary designer’s words.
During the interview, the full question was put to Miyamoto, “How do you interpret the slowdown in sales in 2009? Wasn’t gaming meant to be recession-proof?” to which the designer responded:
The winners of the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards were honoured late last week Friday, and as expected, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves received its fair share of nods during the evening, taking home four awards, but it was Batman: Arkham Asylum that ultimately took home the top prize: Best Game.
Also of note, legendary videogame designer Shigeru Miyamoto was present at the event to receive his BAFTA fellowship award (and, as an aside, mentioned that work on Pikmin 3 for the Wii is well underway… interesting).
You can read through the full list of nominations for this year’s GAME British Academy Video Games Awards over here, and see all of the winners in all of the categories below:
Shigeru Miyamoto, the Nintendo game designer best known for his creation of Mario Bros, will receive the Academy’s Fellowship at this year’s GAME British Academy Video Game Awards (BAFTA).
Miyamoto is currently the General Manager of Nintendo, Analysis and Development, although he is also referred to as the “father of modern video games” and the Steven Spielberg of the gaming world. Not surprising given his creation of Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendogs, Wii Music and the aforementioned Mario Bros.
Videogame industry legend, programming technology guru and id Software (DOOM, Quake) co-founder John Carmack is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards for his outstanding contributions to the art and science of games, following in the footsteps of prolific industry stars Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima and Richard Garriott.
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises “the career and achievements of developers who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development,” and with Carmack’s more than two decade history of making games, working on breakthrough technology and his contributions to popularising the first-person shooter genre with titles such as Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake, as well as his efforts in continually pushing the bounds of graphics technology, you could say he’s made an “indelible impact” on game development.
Event Director of the Game Developers Conference Meggan Scavio said of Carmack and the award:
Speaking at the 13th Annual Japan Media Arts Festival on Saturday after receiving a ‘Special Achievement Prize’ award from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto briefly mentioned that he is working on a new motion-based title using the Wii Motion Plus, in addition to his duties on the new Wii Zelda game.
This February at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, videogame industry legend Mark Cerny will be formally inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining the likes of luminaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto, John Carmack, Will Wright and Sid Meier.
Mark Cerny has made major contributions to videogame technologies and numerous titles throughout the years, some of which you may not even realise he had a hand in, including Marble Madness way back in 1984, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Heart of Darkness, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Uncharted, MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword, inFamous and Killzone 2, with many more to come in the future through his consultation company, Cerny Games.
In a survey commissioned by the Develop Conference (which runs from July 14th to the 16th in UK development hub, Brighton), and polling results from 9000 game developers, it’s been revealed that, unsurprisingly, Nintendo’s star game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has been voted as the respondent’s ultimate game development hero.
What was heartening to see, however, was who placed in at No. 2 on the top ten list of favourite game developers – non other than legendary graphics guru (and game designer), and id Software technical director, John Carmack.
Managing director of Tandem Events, organiser of the Develop Conference in Brighton, Andy Lane commented on the results: “It’s no surprise that Miyamoto-san is the development hero of developers – over the last thirty years he has created games that have not only driven the evolution of the games industry but also changed people’s lives.
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