[edit] Early life
Shigeru Miyamoto was born in
Sonobe (now
Nantan),
Kyoto,
Japan. As a young boy, Miyamoto loved to draw, paint pictures, and explore the landscape surrounding his house. Stories describe his fascinated discovery of hidden caves, lakes, and other natural features which were linked to his later work. For example, The Legend of Zelda was inspired by Miyamoto's maze-like Japanese home; he'd often go exploring in the wilderness and caves.
[2] Another example is the infamous Chain Chomp enemy of Mario fame. When Miyamoto was a child, he was attacked by a neighbor's dog, which was kept at bay by a chain attached to a post.
[3] In
1970, he enrolled in the
Kanazawa College of Art, and graduated five years later, though he would later remark that his studies often took a backseat to doodling. In 1977 Miyamoto, armed with a degree in industrial design, was able to arrange a meeting with
Hiroshi Yamauchi who was a friend of his father and the head of Nintendo of Japan. Yamauchi hired Miyamoto to be a "staff artist" and assigned him to apprentice in the planning department.
[edit] Nintendo
In 1980, the fairly new
Nintendo of America was looking for a hit to establish itself as a player in the growing arcade market. After successful location tests using prototypes, then-NoA CEO
Minoru Arakawa ordered a very large number of units of
Radar Scope, an
arcade game. However, by the time the arcade machines could be produced and shipped to the U.S., interest had vaporized, causing
Radar Scope to be a huge flop. To stay afloat and clear the costly inventory of
Radar Scope, Nintendo of America desperately needed a smash-hit game that the unsold machines could be converted to play. Yamauchi assigned Miyamoto the task of creating the game that would make or break the company.
After Miyamoto had consulted with some of the company's engineers , and composed the music himself on a small electronic keyboard,
Donkey Kong was fully conceptualized. When the game was complete, the chips containing the new program were rushed to the U.S. and Nintendo employees worked around the clock to convert the
Radar Scope machines. It was fortunate that Nintendo had so many units on hand, because
Donkey Kong was an overnight success, and not only saved the company, but introduced the character who more than any other would be identified with Nintendo.
The three most famous characters Miyamoto created for the game were
Donkey Kong,
Jump Man, and
Lady. It was Mario, a character who descends from Jump Man, that has found the most success, and since his début in
Donkey Kong he has appeared in more than 100 games spanning over a dozen gaming platforms.
Miyamoto is usually listed as "producer" in the credits of
Mario games. The few exceptions include the
Super Mario Land series for the
Game Boy, which he had virtually nothing to do with. (
Gunpei Yokoi, Miyamoto's mentor, produced the
Super Mario Land series.) In early U.S. releases, he was sometimes credited as "Miyahon", a mistransscription of the
kanji in his name (本 — which can be read as either
hon or
moto). The mistranslated surname was Miyamoto's development nickname in the 1980s (having a nickname was a common practice among Japanese game developers at the time).
At
E3's convention in 1997, Miyamoto revealed that he was constantly working with around four hundred people on a dozen or so projects at a time.
[4]
Despite being an influential figure in video games and responsible for multi-million dollar franchises, Miyamoto is said to be very humble, insisting on settling for an average income, and often rides a bicycle to work.
[edit] Competition with Sony and Microsoft
Holding the intellectual reins of the
Wii was Miyamoto's first taste of the hardware battle. He has claimed his peers within the industry have been "too focused on hardcore gamers". His belief that his project could out-sell
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 is influenced by his business motto; "Games should be something
everybody wants to play". However, he admits changes had to be made before the
Wii was a serious contender. "There was a time when Nintendo was not influencing the world in the way it would have liked", Miyamoto claims, "That's why I've spent so much time trying to find new, exciting control systems we can use."
In the first 6 months of straight competition,
Wii almost outsold both its rivals, with gamers buying as many as
Xbox 360 and four times as many as
Playstation 3. When asked about his vision of rivalry in the future, he has high hopes for his team. He says, "My dream is that the Wii becomes this device everybody sees as being the natural thing next to the TV."
[5]
[edit] Awards and recognition
Shigeru Miyamoto (right) with fellow game designers
Michel Ancel (left) and
Frédérick Raynal as well as French minister of culture
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (center-right) on March 13, 2006 above the
Palais Royal gardens in Paris.
Miyamoto was the first person ever to be inducted into the
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in
1998, an award that outlines his lifetime achievement and dramatic effect on the video game industry. In
March 2005, Miyamoto was among the first honorees in 2004 to receive a star on the
Walk of Game: a section of
San Francisco's
Metreon Center that is modeled on
Hollywood's
Walk of Fame.
On
March 13,
2006 Miyamoto received a French honor by being inducted Chevalier ("Knight") into the
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, alongside game designers
Michel Ancel, and
Frédérick Raynal as part of the
French video game policy effort.
The main character of the infamous PC game
Daikatana, Hiro Miyamoto, was given his last name as an homage to Shigeru.
[6]
On
November 28,
2006 Miyamoto was featured in
TIME Asia's "60 Years of Asian Heroes" with
Hayao Miyazaki,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Mother Teresa,
Bruce Lee, and the
Dalai Lama.
[7]
At the
Game Developers Choice Awards, on March 7, 2007, Shigeru Miyamoto received the Lifetime Achievement Award for a career that spans the creation of
Donkey Kong,
Super Mario Bros., and
The Legend of Zelda. He was also given credit to the company's recent revolutionary systems such as the
Nintendo DS and the
Wii. He was the Keynote speaker at that conference, along with Eiji Aonuma and Satoru Iwata.
[8]
Shigeru Miyamoto has also been chosen as one of the 100
TIME Magazine's 2007 Most Influential People of the Year.
[9]
[edit] Personal life
Although a game designer, he hardly spends time playing games. During his spare time, Miyamoto also plays the
guitar and
banjo.
[10] Shigeru Miyamoto has two children with his wife, Yasuko Miyamoto, who was general manager of Nintendo of Japan in 1977. Neither of their children has expressed a desire to go into the family business. He claims that Yasuko hates video games, but she is beginning to enjoy playing games like
Brain Age and using the Wii's
Everybody Votes Channel.
[11] Miyamoto has a
Shetland Sheepdog named Pikku (pronounced Pick) that is the influence for
Nintendogs.
[12]
[edit] Delays
It is not rare for Nintendo to delay its games. This is largely due to the perfectionist tendency of Miyamoto who would go as far as scrapping the entire development of a game if he did not find a game up to his standards.
Miyamoto and fellow developers refer to this scrapping as "
Chabudai Gaeshi" (ちゃぶ台返し, "upending the tea table"), a reference to manga and anime
Hoshi of the Giants.
[13] It is also referred to as "Miyahon Check" (Miyahon is an alternative kanji reading of Miyamoto) or "Miyamoto Test".
[14]
- "Twinkle Popo" was a completed product with a pre-order of 26,000 units. It was supposed to be released under the game's developer, HAL Laboratory. Miyamoto intervened arguing that, with a tiny bit of tweaking, it would become a great game. After cancelling the pre-order, the game was eventually released under Nintendo with the title Kirby's Dream Land, selling 5 million units globally.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was supposed to be released immediately after the release of the Nintendo 64 (Japanese release date, 6 June 1996). Instead, Miyamoto, who was the producer, repeatedly ordered the game to be redone, resulting in numerous announcements of delays by Nintendo until the game's eventual release on 21 November 1998. Ocarina of Time sold over 7.6 million units, has the highest average review score of any game ever made, and is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time.
- Eiji Aonuma was initially the producer of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, between 2005 to 2006, Miyamoto switched to the producer's role. He stated that the switch was the result of a year-long development being "Chabudai Gaeshi"ed. [15] In the same interview, Miyamoto said that he had to clean up the mess of his Chabudai Gaeshi, so he joined in as a producer and also to assist in the development of the game. Twilight Princess, eventually released for both the GameCube and Wii consoles, has received tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success.
[edit] Current activities
Miyamoto is currently developing
Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii and supervising
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii and
Nintendo DS. Both versions of the latter are being developed by
Sega, not
Nintendo. Miyamoto personally unveiled the first trailer for Super Mario Galaxy at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, California, in March of 2007. Miyamoto also unveiled
Wii Fit in 2007, which he has nearly finished developing along with Super Mario Galaxy and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Aside from
Mario Kart Wii, it is unknown what ideas he has in mind for 2008.
zeus il divino
Satoru Iwata o Sigeru Miyamoto?
Che cavolo, ho semplicemente chiesto una preferenza....-_-
