Miyamoto Chats With GamePro! (Page 2 of 4)

Libe Goad- GameDaily: I was wondering if you had the chance to play around with some of the older, fitness-based videogames like EyeToy Kinetic on the PS2 or Yourself! Fitness on the Xbox, and why you think Wii Fit has a broader appeal than those?

Miyamoto: I have to apologize, but I haven't played those games. As far as why Wii Fit might have a broader appeal, I can't really say, but when we developed Wii Fit, we put all of our effort into making the best project we could. We used our best development teams and we took the development very seriously. We took a lot of different interfaces into consideration and really put a very strong focus on making this product appeal to a wider audience. It's hard for me to say because I haven't played these other games. The impression that I've got from some of the other fitness games is that people have tried to make them because they thought "Well, maybe we can make a fitness game," and they didn't approach it with the same level of earnestness and dedication that I feel we have.

I guess another way to say that is that if yoga suddenly becomes popular, then people will say "Oh, let's make a yoga game." People might say "Let's make a fitness game and capitalize on this." Whereas, our goal with Wii Fit was to create this experience-- what could we do with this experience that can't be done anywhere else?

Dave Rudden- GamePro: On a similar note, I was wondering if you were influenced by other games that use the lower-half of your body like Dance Dance Revolution or the NES Power Pad games.

Miyamoto: Because we focused first on device that was based on weighing yourself, and from there in the development process came to the idea of using your body to move and control the game, we didn't consciously think of the mats in the previous games like that. I guess on the one hand you could say that there is maybe some common inspiration between those types of games because one of the other things we wanted to do with Wii Fit was to create a game that looks fun to people watching others play, so when you see someone standing on the board using Wii Fit, we wanted it to look like something fun. In that sense, you could say it has that common element with other mat games. But we didn't start off with the idea of "We want to make a game with a peripheral" and then come to the idea of "Let's make a game that lets you weigh yourself;" we started on the other end. We thought "Let's make a game in which you weigh yourself," and then the peripheral for that game eventually evolved into the device you see today.

Russell Frushtick, UGO: You've mentioned that it took some convincing to get the development team on board with weighing yourself as a game idea--were there other instances in which a lot of convincing was required, or you were even unable to convince them of an idea you thought was great but no one in the room was with you on it?

Miyamoto: Personally, I don't want to be misconstrued; there were, in fact, some people on the team who agreed with me on Wii Fit, though a majority of the people did not. I think the other best-case example was the original DS hardware. In the process of developing the DS, for a very long time there were a number of people who continued to believe that it wasn't the best idea.

Internally at Nintendo, I think we have a nice balance of people who have been there a long time who are maybe a bit more conservative in their views on what we should be focusing on with people who are younger and newer and a bit more excited about trying new things. I think we've managed to create an even balance that leads to some interesting things.

Jeremy Parish, 1UP: Obviously Wii Fit is a very different game than you're used to publishing--I'm curious as to the unique localization challenges were in this game--for instance, the fact that Americans tend to be less fit.

Miyamoto: Generally, when I'm creating games, I don't really think about how it will do in certain countries. Typically, when I'm trying to develop a game, I feel like I'm developing more on gameplay ideas that are based on senses or feelings I think are common to everyone, everywhere, regardless of where you're from.

That being said, in the case of Wii Fit, it is true that Americans are typically bigger than the Japanese, particularly when it comes to their feet. So in that sense, we did go beyond in terms of the Balance Board. We found a rather large American named Reggie [Fils-Aime] to stand on the board to measure whether our early prototypes were big enough for his feet and made changes based on that. Beyond that, changing the measure of kilograms in Japan to pounds in the US, and stones in the UK, which was rather strange for me. But really, there's not a lot of specification differences between the versions.

The one other point I probably should explain is that in Japan, you might notice on the Wii Balance Board box that the board is rated to 136 kg (300 lbs). Here in America, if you look on the Wii Fit box, it's rated to 330 lbs, which is 250 kg. Looking at the box, you'd think the board was made stronger for the United States. Japan has a little-known law that's called The Laws of Weights and Measures whereby scale manufacturers have to submit their products for certification from the government. The standards that they were using at the time were 300 for a household scale, so in order for the Balance Board to receive certification from the Japanese governement's Weights and Measuremets law, we had to certify it at a level of 300 pounds. Because the United States does not have a law, we're allowed to state that it works at a level of 330 pounds, despire the fact that the boards are completely the same.

Also, when you're standing on the Balance Board, some of the activities require you to squat or jump, so the Balance Board can handle physical pressure of up to 600 pounds. The weight it can accurately detect is 300.

Comments [31]

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sammyborai

3rd i cant imagine anyone thinking this game is fun and not a dumb workout

TribeMindMD

3rd i cant imagine anyone thinking this game is fun and not a dumb workout
I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it in North America and Europe; they just aren't the types to come and post at GamePro. ;)

VoiceOfReason

Also, when you're standing on the Balance Board, some of the activities require you to squat or jump, so the Balance Board can handle physical pressure of up to 600 pounds. The weight it can accurately detect is 300.
At least it isnt as flimsy as I thought it was going to be

Sire

VoiceOfReason Posted at: 04/18/08 at 3:39 PM PST Also, when you're standing on the Balance Board, some of the activities require you to squat or jump, so the Balance Board can handle physical pressure of up to 600 pounds. The weight it can accurately detect is 300. At least it isnt as flimsy as I thought it was going to be
Okay, that's cool. I'm like 6'4 and 250lbs. . . the board looks like it will crush under my wieght, . . I guess not. That's cool.. . I think I'll use it in private, someone my size will look like a complete fruitcake balancing like he is doing in that pic. I'm not saying I'm not gonna do it, but I think I'll keep this one to myself, it'll still be fun I guess.

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