An interview with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has been making the rounds, mostly due to the storied creator’s thoughts on game IP and Nintendo’s expansion into film.
The legendary creator, who is now an executive fellow at Nintendo, was interviewed for the Nintendo Museum – which at the time of the interview was about to open in October 2024.
The interview has become the target of concern due to a flagrantly misquoted piece by Kyodo News, which took what Miyamoto said out of context and combined things for maximum effect. Here’s the quote that Kyodo News presented:
“Games eventually stop running when newer versions come out, but films remain forever,” Miyamoto said.
For context, this quote was translated by their team and presented as-is with an article talking up Nintendo and Capcom’s expansion into film adaptations of their game IPs, which they published in the past week. The original interview is from over a year ago.
To compare, here’s the original quote from Miyamoto, directly translated by our team:
“Ultimately, what people remember are the IPs. Games become obsolete when new versions replace them. That’s incredibly sad,” Miyamoto said. “We started video production partly because of that sadness—seeing our creations become playable only on Virtual Console. Even making them playable in a museum has its limits, but video content can endure forever.”
The full interview has lots of great insight from Miyamoto as expected, where the creator talks about preserving Nintendo’s heritage but also their future as a creative studio.
“[Initially, this museum] was primarily designed around displaying past products and hardware,” Miyamoto said. “But to help people understand Nintendo as a whole, we decided showing our IP was the best approach, so we created that space. Now, it functions as a gateway to introduce people to this IP and bring them back to Nintendo games, much like how IP, theme parks, and movies operate. Looking ahead, while games are naturally part of the larger Nintendo IP brand, I envision creating even more compelling offerings. I hope we can think of it as a space where increasingly diverse elements can be integrated.”
One of the initial complains visitors to the Nintendo Museum had was that it was just that – mostly a place to show off their old hardware. Nintendo listened, and has expanded their museum to focus on the hardware and the various IPs they make.
“I envision more and more of these things accumulating, making Nintendo itself a huge brand,” Miyamoto added. “I always say our theme is ‘creating reasons for people to choose Nintendo.’ I dream of a world where, when a child starts first grade, parents say, ‘Okay, what Nintendo product should we buy?’ – not just a specific game, but ‘When you start first grade, we’ll buy you a Nintendo.'”
