Shigeru Miyamoto Explains Why Nintendo Prioritizes Fun Over Trends

31 July 2026
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13 min.
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Shigeru Miyamoto Explains Why Nintendo Prioritizes Fun Over Trends

Summary:

Nintendo has spent decades building an unusually strong connection with players around the world, but Shigeru Miyamoto believes the explanation behind that success is surprisingly straightforward. Rather than beginning development by studying popular trends or calculating how quickly a project can recover its costs, Nintendo starts by thinking about fun, the people who will play the game and the individual creators responsible for bringing an idea to life.

During a recent Famitsu interview celebrating the publication’s 40th anniversary, Miyamoto discussed the philosophy that has shaped Nintendo’s most memorable games. He argued that projects created primarily around short-term financial expectations often struggle to produce anything distinctive. When every decision is filtered through immediate profit targets, the personality of the developers can disappear, leaving behind something technically polished but creatively anonymous.

Nintendo instead tries to establish a strong gameplay foundation before deciding how that idea should be presented. Mario succeeded not because Nintendo carefully designed a marketable middle-aged mascot, but because players first encountered him in remarkably enjoyable games. Splatoon began with the idea of painting territory, while Pokémon Red and Green grew from Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood fascination with collecting insects and exchanging discoveries with friends.

These examples reveal a consistent pattern. Nintendo’s largest successes often begin with small, personal ideas rather than attempts to please everyone at once. By allowing those ideas to retain their original character, the company can create experiences that feel specific, recognizable and unexpectedly universal.

Shigeru Miyamoto Explains the Foundation of Nintendo’s Lasting Success

Nintendo’s history stretches across several generations of players, technologies and changing entertainment habits. Many companies remain successful for a few years, but keeping people interested for decades is a much tougher challenge. Nintendo has managed to move from playing cards to arcade machines, home consoles, handheld systems, films, theme parks and museums without losing the playful identity that ties everything together. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, that staying power does not come from carefully copying whatever happens to be popular at a particular moment. It comes from placing fun and the audience at the beginning of the creative process.

That approach sounds simple, but it affects almost every decision Nintendo makes. Instead of asking which genre is currently selling well, a team can ask what kind of interaction might make someone smile, concentrate or immediately want another turn. The difference is important. One question encourages imitation, while the other opens the door to experimentation. Nintendo’s catalogue contains plenty of familiar genres, but its most memorable releases usually add an idea that changes how those genres feel in your hands.

Miyamoto said Nintendo does not begin by asking what is trending. The company first considers who a project is being made for and who will ultimately pay to experience it. That means treating players as people looking for enjoyment rather than numbers on a financial spreadsheet. Trends can still provide useful information, of course, but they do not need to dictate the identity of an entire project. A popular mechanic may attract attention for a season, yet a strong central idea can remain entertaining long after the market has moved on to its next obsession.

This helps explain why Nintendo often appears to move in a different direction from the rest of the industry. When competitors race toward greater technical complexity, Nintendo may introduce an unusual controller or a deceptively simple multiplayer concept. When a genre seems crowded, it may focus on a playful interaction that other developers have overlooked. These decisions do not always make immediate sense from the outside, but they become easier to understand once fun is treated as the destination rather than a decorative layer added near the end.

Why Short-Term Financial Thinking Can Damage Creative Development

Miyamoto expressed little enthusiasm for business language centred on depreciation, recovering costs and celebrating short-term returns. His concern is not that successful projects should ignore financial reality. Nintendo is still a commercial company, and profitable games allow it to fund future ideas. His argument is that recovering an investment should not automatically be treated as a creative victory, especially when reaching that point has exhausted the abilities of a large team without producing anything memorable.

A development team is not an assembly line that can endlessly turn hours into interchangeable products. Designers, programmers, artists, composers and writers bring individual skills that may take years to develop. Using those talents only to create something safe can be like hiring a master chef to heat a frozen dinner. The result may be edible, but it wastes what made the chef valuable in the first place. Miyamoto’s comments suggest that Nintendo considers lasting value more meaningful than reaching a modest financial target as quickly as possible.

Nintendo Sees Long-Term Profit as the Result of a Strong Product

The ideal outcome, in Miyamoto’s view, is a relationship in which a project receives enough time to become successful and eventually generates a substantial return. That is different from expecting every idea to produce immediate results. Some concepts need room to grow, while new characters may require several appearances before audiences develop a lasting connection with them. Nintendo’s best-known properties have often gained value over decades rather than through a single release.

Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Pikmin and Splatoon did not become cultural pillars through one financial quarter. Their strength developed through repeated reinvention, recognizable quality and the trust of players. Each successful experience made the next one easier to introduce. That kind of loyalty cannot be manufactured overnight. It grows when people believe a familiar Nintendo name will give them something carefully made, approachable and worth their time.

Fun Gameplay Remains the Starting Point for Every Nintendo Experience

Miyamoto explained that Nintendo focuses on creating the best product possible for the kind of fun it has imagined. The company does not begin with a character, a business model or a checklist copied from competing releases. It begins with the sensation the player should experience. Perhaps the goal is the joy of movement, the tension of solving a puzzle, the satisfaction of collecting something or the chaos of competing with friends on the same screen.

Once that feeling has been identified, the rest of the game can develop around it. Characters, environments and stories become ways of strengthening the interaction rather than distractions from it. This does not mean presentation is unimportant. Nintendo’s colourful worlds and expressive characters are central to its appeal. However, they work because the visual identity and gameplay support each other. The mechanics provide the heartbeat, while the characters give that heartbeat a recognizable face.

Mario Became an Icon Because the Games Around Him Were Enjoyable

Miyamoto joked about people asking why a mustachioed, middle-aged man became one of the world’s most successful entertainment characters. On paper, Mario does not sound like the obvious result of a carefully researched attempt to create a globally appealing hero. He is a plumber with overalls, a large moustache and a habit of jumping on turtles. Yet those unusual qualities never prevented him from becoming instantly recognizable.

The key is that players met Mario through enjoyable games. His appearance became connected with responsive controls, clever level design, memorable sounds and the excitement of reaching places that initially seemed impossible. Players did not embrace him because he matched a fashionable character template. They embraced him because seeing Mario meant they were about to have fun. Over time, that emotional association became far more powerful than any calculated attempt to make him appear universally marketable.

Nintendo Starts by Asking Why People Choose to Play Games

When Nintendo develops something new, Miyamoto says the team returns to fundamental questions. Why do people play games at all? What makes pressing a button satisfying? Why does overcoming an obstacle feel rewarding rather than frustrating? These questions may sound almost philosophical, but they prevent development from becoming a mechanical process of rearranging familiar features.

Nintendo can still study current games and examine why certain ideas resonate with players. It may also notice that a fashionable mechanic resembles something created years earlier. The difference is that these observations become ingredients rather than instructions. Developers can ask whether the underlying appeal might support a new interaction or whether an old concept could be explored from a different angle. By examining why something is enjoyable, the team gains more freedom than it would by simply copying what already appears successful.

A Different Starting Point Can Transform a Familiar Genre

Even games within established genres can feel original when their starting point is different. Two role-playing games may contain exploration, battles, progression and character development, yet they can produce completely different experiences if their central ideas are not the same. One might begin with a dramatic story, while another starts with collecting creatures, managing relationships or exploring an interconnected environment.

This is why genre labels reveal only part of a game’s identity. Saying that something is an RPG is a little like saying that a meal contains bread. That detail matters, but it does not tell you whether you are getting a sandwich, a pizza or a plate of French toast. Nintendo’s philosophy places greater importance on the underlying idea than the category eventually used to describe it. The genre becomes a structure for expressing the concept rather than the concept itself.

Splatoon Shows How a Simple Gameplay Idea Can Become a Major Franchise

Splatoon is one of the clearest modern examples of Nintendo beginning with play rather than branding. The original concept revolved around covering an area with paint and competing for control of the territory. It was an easy premise to understand, yet turning it into a complete game required extensive experimentation. The developers needed movement, weapons, visual feedback and multiplayer rules that made every painted surface meaningful.

The result was a competitive shooter that felt unlike most other games in the genre. Players could attack opponents, but victory depended on the amount of ground their team covered. Ink also became a movement system, allowing characters to swim quickly through friendly territory. One central idea influenced combat, navigation, strategy and visual design. Instead of attaching a colourful theme to an existing formula, Nintendo allowed the painting mechanic to shape nearly everything around it.

The Inklings Gave Splatoon a Distinct Creative Identity

Splatoon’s characters eventually became inseparable from its gameplay. The Inklings can transform between humanoid and squid forms, which directly supports the ability to move through ink. Their clothes, music and city environments reflect a youthful street culture that matches the game’s energetic competition. None of these elements feels randomly attached because they all grow from the same starting point.

This unity gave Splatoon an identity strong enough to stand alongside Nintendo’s older franchises. Players could recognize it from a splash of neon ink, a piece of music or the silhouette of an Inkling. That is a difficult achievement for any new property, especially within a company already associated with Mario, Link, Donkey Kong and many other established characters. Splatoon succeeded because its creators developed a specific idea with confidence rather than sanding away its personality in pursuit of generic appeal.

Personal Experiences Can Give Games Worldwide Appeal

Miyamoto argued that highly personal interests can sometimes have greater global strength than ideas intentionally designed to appeal to everyone. This may seem contradictory at first. Wouldn’t a broader concept naturally attract a larger audience? The problem is that deliberately universal ideas can become vague. When creators remove every unusual detail that might confuse someone, they may also remove the features that make the project worth remembering.

A personal idea carries evidence of the person who made it. Their interests, habits and observations give the work a texture that cannot easily be reproduced by committee. Audiences from other countries or cultures may not share the exact experience, but they can still recognize the enthusiasm behind it. Passion travels surprisingly well. You do not need to have spent your childhood collecting insects to understand the excitement of finding something rare and showing it to a friend.

Pokémon Red and Green Grew From Satoshi Tajiri’s Childhood Passion

Pokémon Red and Green demonstrate how an individual experience can become the foundation for an enormous global phenomenon. Satoshi Tajiri’s interest in collecting insects helped inspire a game built around discovering creatures, building a collection and exchanging what you had found with other players. The concept was personal, but the emotions behind it were widely understandable.

Many children know the thrill of finding something their friends have not seen. Others enjoy organizing collections, comparing favourites or trying to complete a difficult set. Pokémon transformed those familiar feelings into a digital adventure. The Game Boy link cable was no longer just a technical accessory. It became a bridge through which players could trade creatures and help each other complete their collections. Technology served the original human idea rather than becoming the entire point of the experience.

Trading Helped Pokémon Feel Like a Shared Adventure

The ability to trade creatures gave Pokémon Red and Green a social quality that distinguished them from many earlier RPGs. A player could not simply remain isolated and expect to obtain everything easily. Different versions encouraged people to communicate, compare discoveries and exchange creatures. The game moved beyond the screen and entered playground conversations, classrooms and family homes.

This design supported the fantasy of being a collector and trainer. Finding a creature was satisfying, but knowing someone else wanted it created another layer of value. The creatures became memories attached to people and moments. A traded Pokémon could remind you of a friend, while a rare discovery might become a story repeated for years. That emotional connection helped Pokémon become more than a sequence of battles. It became a shared language between players.

Creative Identity Helps Nintendo Games Stand Apart From Competitors

Miyamoto’s advice to developers is to transform an idea into a product that clearly shows who created it. That does not mean every game needs to become autobiographical. It means the creators should preserve the qualities that make their perspective different. A player should be able to feel that someone cared about the central interaction and made deliberate choices to support it.

This philosophy helps explain why Nintendo games often remain recognizable even when they enter familiar genres. Mario Kart is a racing game, but its items, characters and track design create a particular rhythm. Animal Crossing is a life simulation, yet its real-time structure and gentle community building produce an atmosphere that belongs specifically to Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda contains exploration and combat, but its curiosity-driven worlds encourage players to experiment in ways that feel distinct from many other adventures.

Authenticity Can Reach More People Than Calculated Mass Appeal

A project created for an imaginary average customer risks pleasing nobody strongly enough to be remembered. When every unusual edge is removed, the result may be competent but difficult to identify. Nintendo’s most successful experiences usually take the opposite approach. They commit to a mechanic, visual style or creative personality and trust that the strength of that commitment will attract an audience.

This does not guarantee that every idea will succeed. Creative work always carries risk, and Nintendo has released its share of commercial disappointments. However, a distinctive project at least has the opportunity to build loyalty. Players can explain why they love it, recommend it to friends and remember how it made them feel. Generic work may avoid immediate rejection, but it can also disappear quietly once something newer arrives.

Nintendo’s Philosophy Connects Business Success With Player Trust

Miyamoto’s comments do not suggest that Nintendo separates creativity from business. Instead, they describe a model in which commercial strength grows from player satisfaction. When someone enjoys a game, they become more likely to return to the series, discuss it with others and trust future releases. That relationship has helped Nintendo carry franchises across multiple generations of hardware.

The Nintendo Switch era showed how powerful that trust can become. The Legend of Zelda reached new audiences through a more open style of adventure, while Animal Crossing became a social gathering place for millions of players. These successes did not come from abandoning the qualities associated with each series. They came from finding new ways to express those qualities. Nintendo changed the structure while protecting the emotional reasons people cared in the first place.

Fun Is Simple to Describe but Difficult to Create

It is easy to say that games should be fun. Actually producing that feeling is much harder. Fun depends on timing, controls, challenge, feedback and countless small decisions that players may never consciously notice. A jump can feel wrong because an animation lasts a fraction too long. A reward can lose its impact because it appears too often. A multiplayer match can become frustrating when one strategy dominates every other option.

Nintendo’s focus on fundamentals requires patient testing and refinement. The team must repeatedly play the game, identify weak moments and adjust the experience until the original idea feels natural. That process may appear inefficient when viewed through a short-term financial lens, but it is often where quality emerges. A player sees a simple, responsive interaction. Behind it may be months of revisions that removed every unnecessary obstacle between the idea and the person holding the controller.

Strong Foundations Allow Nintendo Franchises to Evolve

A well-defined central idea also gives a series room to change. Mario can move between side-scrolling platformers, three-dimensional adventures, racing games and party experiences because each project understands the kind of enjoyment it wants to provide. Zelda can shift from carefully ordered dungeons to open-ended exploration while retaining curiosity, discovery and puzzle solving. Pokémon can experiment with different structures while preserving collecting, training and connection.

Franchises become fragile when their identity depends only on repeating familiar features. Remove one feature and the entire structure begins to wobble. Nintendo’s strongest properties are usually built around broader emotional foundations. That allows developers to alter the format without making the result feel unrelated. Players may encounter something new, but they can still recognize the spirit that brought them to the series in the first place.

Conclusion

Shigeru Miyamoto’s explanation for Nintendo’s success comes down to a creative philosophy that sounds simple but demands discipline. Nintendo begins with fun, considers the people who will play and gives individual creators room to leave their fingerprints on a project. Trends and financial targets may influence development, but they are not meant to replace the central question of whether an idea is genuinely enjoyable.

Mario, Splatoon and Pokémon each demonstrate the strength of that approach. Mario became beloved because he appeared in memorable games. Splatoon grew from the idea of painting territory, while Pokémon transformed a childhood interest in collecting insects into an experience shared between friends. None of these ideas began as a calculated attempt to appeal to every possible customer.

That may be Nintendo’s greatest advantage. By creating specific experiences with strong personalities, it produces games that can travel far beyond their original inspiration. The path to worldwide appeal does not always begin with the whole world in mind. Sometimes it begins with one person asking a simple question: wouldn’t this be fun?

FAQs
  • What does Shigeru Miyamoto believe is the secret to Nintendo’s success?
    • Miyamoto believes Nintendo succeeds because it prioritizes fun, players and strong creative ideas instead of beginning with market trends or immediate financial returns.
  • Why does Miyamoto criticize focusing on recouping development costs?
    • He believes recovering an investment should not be celebrated as the main achievement when a project has consumed the talents of many people without creating something distinctive or valuable.
  • Why did Mario become such a successful character?
    • Miyamoto argues that Mario became popular because players first encountered him in enjoyable games. The character gradually became associated with responsive gameplay and memorable experiences.
  • How did Nintendo develop the original idea for Splatoon?
    • Splatoon began with a gameplay concept based on painting an area and competing for control of the territory. Its characters, movement and weapons were later developed around that foundation.
  • How did insect collecting influence Pokémon Red and Green?
    • Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood interest in collecting insects inspired the ideas of finding creatures, completing a collection and trading discoveries with friends through the Game Boy link cable.
Sources
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