Miyamoto plays-down PS3 Home originality

Nintendo legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, played down the originality of Sony's newly-announced Home service for PlayStation 3, saying: "What they're doing already exists in one form on the PC."

Miyamoto went on to accentuate Nintendo's focus on originality. "Our focus is always to be different and do something that's different. That's why, even though, technically speaking, the Miis take advantage of the Internet, that isn't our main focus," he said.

"We are trying to do something that is different and create something that hasn't been there before," Miyamoto told mercurynews.com.

Talking about the lasting appeal of Wii, Miyamoto stated: "It depends on the software we create to make it appealing. Originally, people said Wii Sports was a fun game but it was simple. People would lose interest in it very quickly. We are finding people are still playing it."

He goes on to speak about Nintendo's vision of Wii becoming a common household tool. "Every time people get together in the home, people bring out the Wii to entertain themselves," Miyamoto envisions.

"That's one way to try to sustain the momentum the Wii has gained. To turn it into that tool," he says, highlighting the upcoming Wii "health packs or Wii Fit " games in developments as a way of turning Wii into this tool.

If we recall correctly, the Wii message boards were, in a similar philosophy, intended to be used in the home as a replacement for post-it notes on the fridge. We haven't used it once. Have you?

March 19, 2007