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| Birth Name(s) : Shigeru Miyamoto |
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Full Shigeru Miyamoto Biography
Shigeru Miyamoto (宮本 茂, Miyamoto Shigeru?, born November 16, 1952) is a Japanese video game designer. He is the creator of the Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Nintendogs, Wave Race, and Pikmin video game series for Nintendo game systems. He has also produced many titles which Nintendo has published on behalf of other developers, including the extremely successful F-Zero franchise.
Employed by Nintendo (then producing and marketing a playing card game called Hanafuda) as an artist, in 1980 he was given the task of designing one of their first coin-op arcade games. The resulting title was Radar Scope, which was not as big of a success in the United States as Nintendo hoped for. He later redesigned the game into Donkey Kong which was a huge success and the game's lead character, Jump Man—now called Mario—has become Nintendo's mascot. Miyamoto quickly became Nintendo's star producer designing many franchises for the company, most of which are still active and very well-regarded.
He is currently the Director and General Manager of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD), the corporate sector of Nintendo of Japan. In 1998, Miyamoto became the first person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.
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.
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.
In the first 6 months of straight competition, Wii 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."
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.
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.
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 for 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.
As Producer and R&D member of several games, Miyamoto has had Nintendo implement delays "in order to make a game of the high quality standards that Nintendo is known for." At times, the entire development of a game is scrapped.
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 at E3 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. |
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