Miyamoto: new characters don't make new games

Nintendo isn't in a rush to establish new properties so much as to make entirely new games, according to legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto .

Speaking to GameInformer, Miyamoto discussed Nintendo's relatively slow production of new gaming properties - worlds and characters, in other words.

"Certainly within Nintendo, we have people internally who are saying, 'Well, we have our old characters from our old games, and that's old IP, and we should think about creating new IP.' But the question that we always ask is: 'Does a new character really make it a new game?'" he said.

"And to me, the answer to that is no. What makes it a new game is new gameplay and new interactions. So when we're creating a game, we're always looking at it from, 'What is the gameplay, and how are making that gameplay new?' And then, 'Who is the character that is best suited to that gameplay?'"

Miyamoto said that even when Nintendo makes a game within an existing franchise, because it has made a new kind of gameplay, it has crafted a new experience. Characters are secondary to that, but may be created if no existing faces fit the new style of play. Pikmin is one example of a franchise created in this way.

The full interview through the link above contains loads of Miyamoto quotes. The designer's latest game is Pikmin 3, which arrives on Wii U in August.

Thanks, Destructoid.