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Nintendo's secret sauce

• Maggie Shiels
• 26 Mar 09, 09:09 GMT

Nintendo's president Surato Iwata was the sell-out gig of the week here at GDC. Just minutes before he took to the stage, the line of people snaked outside for more than a block.

Preceding his appearance, there was a lot of talk and hope that he would pull a rabbit out of the hat and excite the audience with a new product like a Wii Relax or Wii Qube said PC World.

Alas none of this came to pass and a few of the gamers I spoke to afterwards were disappointed that what he did announce didn't amount to much. Oh apart from a free copy of Rhythm Heaven which everyone got.

At every turn it seemed Mr Iwata covered up the lack of real product news with some knockout sales figure. Fifty million Wii's, 100m DS units, 14m Wii fit sales, 1.4 m pre-orders for the DSi and so on.

Mr Iwata did however make up for this by giving an entertaining talk about what makes Nintendo tick and revealing the methods video games guru Shigeru Miyamoto has deployed in developing products. Nintentdo's hit maker is responsible for things like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mario and Donkey Kong.

For Mr Miyamoto, "he sees game development opportunities where other people don't. Ideas are everywhere" said Mr Iwata.

His love of gardening inspired the game Pimkin, a GameCube title that was relaunched on the Wii. The idea for the Wii Fit was sparked when Mr Miyamoto weighed himself on the bathroom scales. And buying a puppy led to the creation of Nintendogs, one of the company's big sellers for the DS hand-held console.

Mr Iwata said when his mentor is developing a game, he as president stays well away until Mr Miyamoto has something worth showing.

Sometimes the prototype period can last as much as two years. Mr Iwata said he makes a point of not asking questions in case it "forces the team to cut corners or settle for less than their desired outcome".

Mr Iwata however admitted that this approach "is not good for my mental health".

When Mr Miyamoto is ready to show Mr Iwata something worth seeing then the Nintendo machine gears up and designers, marketers, strategists, advertisers and the like swing into action.

Mr Iwata said he hoped this sneak peak would inspire developers across the gaming community.

Remi Lavoie a programmer with DTI software said most of this was not "not revolutionary stuff. Most people who work in the industry know that kind of stuff though it is interesting to hear what makes such a successful company tick".

But the real secret to Mr Miyamoto's success lies in his tactic to "kidnap" random employees and watch them playing a game.

Mr Iwata joked "the victim is handed a console and told to start enjoying him or herself. There is no discussion, no lists of questions, no need for the player to talk."

All Mr Miyamoto wants to see is how someone plays the game and how and when they react. The development team are not allowed to even walk the "player" through the game because Mr Miyamoto believes that "we cannot send a developer to every home, so the kidnapped victim must figure it out for himself."

Michael Hershberg from Blizzard said "I think Nintendo has some fascinating insights into what makes people enjoy games and it will help me think more about what it is that we want players to actually experience."

Mr Iwata said "when the kidnapped victim is happy the team has succeeded. As a game developer we create entertainment, entertainment is supposed to be enjoyable.

" If it can't be enjoyed the fault belongs to us," stated Mr Iwata.

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Gaming luminaries chew the cud

• Maggie Shiels
• 26 Mar 09, 08:30 GMT

Microsoft is apparently working on the next version of the Xbox.

No surprise perhaps, but that little nugget of information emerged from the "luminaries lunch" held at the Game Developers Conference.

For the second year in a row, a select number of journalists were allowed to come and eavesdrop on half a dozen industry players over sandwiches and wraps at the W Hotel in San Francisco, which has become a sort of semi-official hang out during the week long event.

News of the successor to the Xbox 360 was dropped by Rob Pardo of Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind World of Warcraft and Diablo. He said that he had been in talks with Microsoft and seems to be the only developer that has so far been approached.

The issue came up when David Perry, a 25-year-old veteran who started in the industry aged 15, posed the question "What direction would you take Microsoft or Sony to ensure they lead and not follow in the console business?"

At first pass, Will Wright, the creator of the Sims and Spore, said he would like to "decline the job" while Warren Spector of Deus Ex fame and boss of Disney's Junction Point Studios, indulged in a little mischief.

"I want to see what you guys are going to do with the Wii," he quipped to Mr Pardo.

The Blizzard boss merely raised his eyebrows and kept his own counsel on that one.

To spice things up Mr Perry announced that "on the record the PSP is going to be a digital device. I know that for a fact."

The discussion for a while rotated around content with Mr Spector saying too much of it is knuckle-headed.

"What we need to do is change the content. Am I going to get an axe in the head, or is it going to be a club? Which car or truck is going to be rolling down the street?" he asked.

"We don't need another game about space marines saving the world, we don't need another game about elves and orcs," he concluded.

The discussion then took a decidedly weird turn when Mr Wright said "I'm sure half the people in this room have played the urinal game."

As the room erupted into laughter, he tried to explain the premise of the game and went on to say "we need to make games about the world that are interesting, surprising and illuminating.

"We can make games much more relevant even across cultures and demographics."

That comment came amid a conversation about social gaming which was sparked by a remark made at the recent BAFTA awards by Nolan Bushnell, who is considered the father of electronic gaming and is the inventor of Pong and founder of Atari.

He said that going to a bar is social, but that sitting in a darkened room communicating with thousands of people virtually, isn't social.

A 40-minute discussion among these luminaries ensued.

"Social gaming is becoming cool," said Mr Pardo who also paid reference to the World of Warcraft community and pointed out that "many of them have jobs, and kids".

But Mr Perry questioned whether hanging out online playing games constituted a "real relationship".

"Is it the same as having a beer," he pondered.

"Who cares," replied Mr Wright "If it's real. If it has value that's all that matters."

Brian Fargo, who founded Interplay productions, said that all this "socialising online" has had a negative effect on his behaviour.

"I've become more antisocial as time goes on. I have a Blackberry and I have all these friends.I can't tell you how many times I think I wish they would just e-mail me.

"This is a great philosophical issue. Are we becoming more antisocial? I probably spend more time e-mailing, text messaging than talking," he said.

Neil Young the founder of Ngmoco, which makes games for the iPhone, noted that this "august" group of people were beginning to sound old.

"People who instinticlvely understand multi-tasking as a way of life and grew up with our medium are more willing to fully explore it.

"I would argue next year none of us should be here (at the luminaries lunch). We should figure out who the top six freshest game makers are. I bet you will have different talk and they won't talk about fantasy games or sci-fi."

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