Photo : Kotaku

Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. Prev Next View All

Today in Yokohama, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto gave the keynote address at the 2018 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference. The speech was about an hour long, and here are some of the highlights.




It was a packed house, and websites Afternoon News and Famitsu were in attendance, reporting the following:

The Spread Of Smartphones

When the spread of smartphones, the number of people carrying games in their pocket has increased, Miyamoto pointed out. He joked that “I said, “The DS was already doing this” before I could say, “[Steve] Jobs is doing ‘touch!’”


The Success of Minecraft

“I think the incredible success of Minecraft is amazing,” said Miyamoto. The famed game creator said that he had an idea for a building-block game. However, there were questions as to what kind of game it should be. For example, should it be a racing game? An adventure game? “The discussions went off the rails,” Miyamoto said. The game never happened.

Minecraft, however, did. Miyamoto later saw how someone had made a convenience store in Minecraft and was amazed. He was impressed with the game system and how the game was designed for everyone to play. Miyamoto even admitted it was “regrettable” that they [Nintendo] didn’t come up with the game. “But I’d be happy if this game had come from Japan.”


Not Wanting To Make an MMORPG

“A few years ago, when MMORPGs were coming into fashion, I didn’t want to make one,” Miyamoto as he was against the billing model. “Since I get tired of things easily, I don’t want to keep making one game,” he said. Instead, Miyamoto wants to move on to the next project. But with an MMORPG, the developers must continually add content and do regular maintenance and updates. That development style apparently doesn’t suit Miyamoto’s personality.


Where Do Ideas Come From?

“Everyone is always thinking of ideas, but it’s whether or not those are good ideas,” Miyamoto said, adding that ideas coming during relaxed moments. His ideas just happen to be brilliant.