According to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s success is not built on a secret business formula but on a remarkably straightforward creative philosophy. The company prioritises enjoyable gameplay above everything else and only then considers short-term financial performance.
A common view among players is that Nintendo operates by entirely different rules from the rest of the major games industry. While many large companies pursue live-service releases, spectacular graphics and projects designed to satisfy investors, the Japanese company continues to follow its own path. That approach has worked extraordinarily well, turning Nintendo into one of the most recognisable brands in entertainment and helping its games sell millions of copies every year. This naturally raises the question of whether the company possesses some hidden formula its competitors have failed to notice, but Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and numerous other major properties, believes the explanation is far simpler: Nintendo remains honest about the kind of entertainment it wants to create.
Miyamoto discussed that philosophy in a recent interview with Famitsu, translated and shared by Nintendo Everything, where he addressed the supposed “formula for success” behind the Japanese company’s global reputation. “The reason Nintendo enjoys such strong global support is simply that we don’t start by asking ourselves, ‘What’s trending right now?’ Instead, we focus on those for whom we’re actually doing this. Who’s putting up the money? I deeply dislike terms like ‘depreciation’ or ‘cost recovery.’ The people who fund these projects do it to make a fortune, so what’s the point of celebrating things like ‘we recouped our investment’ or short-term profits? To me, if you’ve exhausted the talent of so many people just to achieve that, it seems like a huge failure.”
For Miyamoto, Nintendo begins by deciding what kind of experience it wants to make and only afterwards determines the business framework around it. “We’ve always focused on creating the best possible product to live up to the ‘fun gameplay’ we envisioned. I think that’s the only real difference,” he continued. “Maybe it sounds a bit arrogant to say this [laughs], but if you’re constantly asking yourself, ‘Will this make money immediately?’, you won’t be able to create anything truly unique or that has broad appeal.”
Turning Something “Local” Into a Distinctive Video Game
An important part of Nintendo’s approach to designing distinctive experiences is encouraging developers to express their individual interests and characteristics. Miyamoto explained this idea during the Famitsu interview: “The ideal relationship between us and the company is one where you receive feedback such as, ‘I’m so glad I asked you to do this; it took some time, but it’s generated great benefits.’ Ultimately, it all comes down to whether we can keep going.” In his view, highly personal or “local” ideas, including an individual creator’s hobbies, are often precisely the things that resonate with audiences around the world. “Conversely, if you try to base your work on things that only seem to have general appeal, you end up with something generic; something where it’s impossible to identify the author, and those kinds of projects really lack global appeal.”
Nintendo therefore has no magical or universally applicable formula for success; it simply invests its efforts in distinctive projects that may eventually find worldwide popularity. Miyamoto’s advice to the company’s developers consequently returns to the same principle: “You should turn your idea into a product in a way that best highlights the fact that you were the ones who created it.”
Source: 3DJuegos
