Japanska spelbibeln Famitsu intervjuade nyligen #Nintendos storstjärna Shigeru Miyamoto. I en öppenhjärtig intervju berättar han om de sämre tiderna med Nintendo 64 som sedermera kulminerade med Gamecube, och det är uppenbart att det inte bara var fansen som led under de magra åren.

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.

Miyamoto anser att svårigheterna med Gamecube kan härledas till att Nintendo satsade på att slå #Sony och #Microsoft med deras egna medel, istället för att hitta på något unikt.

There was an era when Nintendo was going in the direction of doing the same things other companies did. 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. Entertainment is something that you have to look at the world with a very wide eye as you create it. I always thought that, but there were a few years where I was unable to get off other people's trends. It was a dilemma in my mind.

Efter kräftgången med minskade försäljningar för både Nintendo 64 och Gamecube var det tydligt att företaget var på väg i en nedåtgående spiral. Lösningen visade sig komma med den, till synes helgalna idé, som före detta Nintendo-chefen Hiroshi Yamauchi lanserade för vad som skulle komma att bli DS -- två skärmar! Den dubbla uppsättningen skärmar samt Miyamotos sug efter tryckkänslig skärm skapade en ofattbar dundersuccé som slagit otaliga försäljningsrekord.

In the end we didn't want a new game system, but a product that would make the entire world go crazy. And so Yamauchi said 'two screens'. That turned the development lab upside down! So we went through some trial-and-error work which ultimately connected to the touch pen, something I had wanted to have for a while. I didn't think two screens was enough to make the DS a success, but the touch pen is what puts it all together, both in terms of cost and design.

Har du en Nintendo DS och Wii, och vad tycker du om det "nya" Nintendo som stigit fram i askan efter Gamecube-eran?