Shigeru Miyamoto to Keynote Game Developer's Conference

Gamasutra is reporting that legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto will be headlining a GDC keynote during the event this March. Jamil Moledina, the director of GDC, covers what Miyamoto will be talking about and a bit of his long history in a post to the GDC blog. From that post: "Getting him back to GDC has been tricky. While having spoken at GDC in 1999, Miyamoto-san's commitments are considerable. Thankfully his boss gets what GDC is for. As you may know, Satoru Iwata has inspired the GDC audience two years in a row, with iconic and revealing addresses. Both instances mapped to surges in developer interest in and support for Nintendo's platforms, which speaks to the dramatic symbiosis between platform and developer -- as well as the effectiveness of the GDC biosphere in enabling the productive sharing of knowledge and experience."

Nintendo's Speakers

[HappySqurriel]

Something I have seen commented on several times is that Nintendo has the most insightful and entertaining public speakers in the entire videogame industry.

A friend of mine who is a developer for a company which "Works Closely" with Microsoft on XBox 360 games saw Iwata's keynote (2 years ago I think) and he said when the presentation was done he wanted to stop developing FPS and create some unique game for the DS; he didn't, but it was how he felt. Honestly, I can't wait to see what he talks about and shows off ... I imagine he will argue that unique games which people find fun sell well not shiny graphics; he will demonstrate this trend by showing DS and Wii sales.

Re:Nintendo's Speakers

[GigsVT]

Do Nintendo games have a weakspot you can hit for MASSIVE DAMAGE, though? I didn't think so. I'll stick to Sony keynote speeches thank-you-very-much.

Re:

[Aladrin]

No, but I think it should be noted that Viva Pinata for the x360 does. It also has 'realtime tool change'. I kid you not. You can talk to the characters and one of them states that you can hit Seedos' weakpoint for massive damage and that it has realtime tool change. (If you hit him with a shovel, he drops seeds.) It's got to be one of the funniest references in that game.

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[rkanodia]

Contact for the DS makes the same joke during an early boss fight.

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[Thansal]

compleatly true.

Even Regie, the angriest man on earth, can really captivate an audiance when he gets going.

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[Poltras]

Even Regie, the angriest man on earth[...]

You mean more angry than this [wikipedia.org] man?

Re:

[HappySqurriel]

After seeing Steve Ballmer dance [youtube.com] I'm pretty sure Reggie could take his name [youtube.com].

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[Guppy06]

"Something I have seen commented on several times is that Nintendo has the most insightful and entertaining public speakers in the entire videogame industry."

I miss Yamauchi.

Um...what's the news?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

...legendary (game) designer (name) will be headlining a Game Developers Conference keynote...

Um...what's the news? This doesn't seem that surprising to me.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

"Getting him back to GDC has been tricky. While having spoken at GDC in 1999, Miyamoto-san's commitments are considerable. Thankfully his boss gets what GDC is for."

That is what the news is. Sure, it would be great to have him there every year, but he's a busy man. This year he's there. Maybe not worth breaking into a TV program to announce, but still news none the less.

Re:Um...what's the news?

[poot_rootbeer]

The news would be that this particular legendary game designer hasn't spoken at this developers' conference (or any other) in eight years. Rare occurances are newsworthy.

Mod parent up, please.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Mod parent up, please. That's what I was looking for. (I have mod points today; but I can't use them here because I already wrote in.)

I'm certainly excited

[CaptCommy]

I for one have usually cared more about things like the GDC than E3, because it's more interesting to hear theory from the brains of the industry than the flash and tech demos of E3. Now, with E3 gone, I have a feeling stuff like this will get a lot more press coverage, which I see as a very good thing. At the very least, the GDC looks more professional than E3, which might help kick off some of our stereotypes as just a bunch of kids messing around.

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[PhoenixOne]

I think GDC looks more professional than E3 in part *because* of the lack of media coverage. Add TV cameras, even to a GDC event, and everything changes...

Speaking

[MeanderingMind]

Satoru Iwata is an excellent English speaker. It may not be perfect, but it's extremely good for anyone who isn't a native speaker. However, I haven't had the opportunity to hear any public speaking of significant duration from Shigeru Miyamoto that was in English. Small amounts here and there, but not entire keynotes.

I suspect that while his English is good, he just isn't comfortable speaking much of it in front of a large audience.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It will probably sound something like this:

It's-a me! Miyamoto!

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[7Prime]

Ya know, it might not be the language barrier. In every interview I've heard with him, he seems like he's a kinda timid guy. He's always seemed very gratious, and wanted to be there for his projects, but his wording always gave me the impression that he lacks a bit of confidence.

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[Duds]

He's actually only been really learning english the last few years so maybe he's continued to make progress with that.

its funny

[astrokid]

hearing how inspired developers get after hearing Miyamoto or Iwata speak only to have their 'creativity' result in shovel-ware on the wii or ds.

It's really more of a...

[bluemonq]

"Wow, that's really cool! I bet we can do all sorts of cool things with that," but when they gel back to the office they find they don't have the computing power/money/time/resources/personnel/ incentive to pull it off.

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[argux]

It's funny, laugh!

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[MeanderingMind]

Honestly, I could care less about PCs and their overly complicated games.

Column A: Spore is exciting because it's being made in such a way that anyone can play around with it. It'll be a simple game, but a one with great depth.

Column B: Supreme Commander disappointed me because the last time I tried the beta the emphasis remained on the same micromanagement I saw in WarCraft II, StarCraft, WarCraft III, any C&C etc. SupCom was supposed to be about macromanagement and moving away from needless complicati

Damn, who left the door unlocked?

[Alzheimers]

Get his ass back in the office, chain him to the desk, and tell him to finish Mario Galaxy!

Two Nintendo consoles in a row without a Mario launch title?! Who's in charge there?

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[trdrstv]

Two Nintendo consoles in a row without a Mario launch title?! Who's in charge there?

Though it's not new... Techically, the Wii (and the DS) got Mario64 at launch...

Honestly I'm not expecting Mario Galaxy until Q4 2007.