Miyamoto reflects on GameCube era 'sadness'
But mediocrity did inspire new systems, designer says
Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto - the designer credited with the invention of the Wii console - has reflected on the GameCube era at Nintendo, noting that it was a time of sadness for the Japanese gaming giant.
"There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did," Miyamoto told 1UP.com.
"The more we competed with new companies entering the market, the more we started acting similar to them. But is being number one in that competition the same as being number one with the general public? That's the question we had."
Talking about the advent of 3D worlds which followed the N64 period for Nintendo, Miyamoto also notes the challenges of the time: "This is a job where you have a plan and you polish it endlessly while getting help from others. If Nintendo's games fail to stand out as games that aren't made that way proliferate, then it shows that the creation process is for nothing, which made me very sad.
"That was especially obvious during the GameCube era; Nintendo titles were hardly even discussed by the general public back then," he concludes. On the plus side, this disappointment saw Nintendo return to the drawing board and refresh everything with the DS and the Wii.
