Nintendo's Miyamoto says he isn't a genius and "I'd prefer not to work at all, but If I'm going to work, I want to do so as efficiently as possible"

Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, and more, refutes claims he was a genius during a shareholders' briefing on November 6, 2024. 

As reported and translated by Automaton Media, one of the questions referred to Miyamoto as a genius. When you create some of the most famous and beloved video game franchises of all time, it's easy to see why people would think that. He replied that when he gives his yearly seminar to new Nintendo employees, many of them say things like, "I wondered what kind of person Mr. Miyamoto would be, but I was relieved to find that he’s surprisingly normal."

He refutes the genius label, saying "I think I am a pretty ordinary person. If possible, I’d prefer not to work at all, but If I’m going to work, I want to do so as efficiently as possible. I’m always thinking about how to make what I’m working on a hit, because If I make a hit, this makes my next job easier." 

It's a very pragmatic way of thinking about work, and it's clearly done well for Nintendo – the company's stock price has risen over 400% since 2000 and many of its games are the best-selling in the world.

He expands on his actual video game design philosophy, too. "Among the game developers who have just joined Nintendo, many of them often play games themselves, and their thinking is that they want to create a fancier version of the last game that they played," he explains. "However, I explain to them that game design is not about this, it is about looking at the things around you and putting together the aspects that you think would be interesting in a video game."

It's often been said that Nintendo doesn't compete in console or game wars, it just does its own thing, and this design philosophy could explain why. The Switch doesn't have the same performance capabilities as the PS5 or Xbox Series X, but it's much cheaper and its portability make it far more accessible.

If you can read Japanese, you can read the full Q&A here.

You should check out some of the best Nintendo Switch games available right now – there are a few franchises Miyamoto started on there.