Miyamoto: Nintendo may have 'underestimated' scale of HD development

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says that HD requires twice the manpower, and that Nintendo might have underestimated the work needed to make the switch.

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Many companies experienced the HD switch years ago, but for Nintendo, this is a fairly recent hurdle. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto gave some frank comments about the struggles of moving its development into high-definition, and admitted the company might have underestimated the challenge.

"When it comes to the scale of software development, Wii U with HD graphics requires about twice the human resources than before," Miyamoto said in an investor Q&A from late June, which was recently translated. "Please allow me to explain that we may have underestimated the scale of this change and as a result, the overall software development took more time than originally anticipated just as we tried to polish the software at the completion phase of development. However, we are almost out of this phase, and we are also trying to create something unique utilizing an easier development approach called 'Nintendo Web Framework.'"

Nintendo announced its Web Framework at GDC this year, though at the time it sounded more aimed at app development than games.

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  • reply
    July 8, 2013 3:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Miyamoto: Nintendo may have 'underestimated' scale of HD development.

    Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto says that HD requires twice the manpower, and that Nintendo might have underestimated the work needed to make the switch.

    • reply
      July 8, 2013 3:31 PM

      unfortunately for Nintendo everyone else figured this out 7-8 years ago when HD consoles first came out

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      July 8, 2013 4:02 PM

      Take your time, Big N. The games are always worth it.

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      July 8, 2013 5:11 PM

      Lol Nintendo come on. Didn't you learn from how bad it sucked to have lost Final Fantasy 7 thereby single handed-lee giving Sony a huge in into the console market when they needed it most. Controllers are only so cool.

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        July 8, 2013 5:18 PM

        Who is Single Handed Lee? He sounds like an interesting character.

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          July 8, 2013 5:37 PM

          He was the chef working at the Platinum Hotel restaurant during ShackCon.

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          July 8, 2013 5:45 PM

          its that part on the walking dead game where lee has a choice of chopping off his arm

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          July 8, 2013 7:57 PM

          Fucking lol singlehanded-lee

          Kids these days god dammit

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        July 8, 2013 5:55 PM

        Ocarina of Time.

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        July 9, 2013 6:56 AM

        Single handed-lee?

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          July 9, 2013 7:01 AM

          High fives like a motherfucker but can't play Karate Champ for shit.

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      July 8, 2013 6:29 PM

      Wow, they underestimated CD's, DVD's, Online and now HD. Just pigheaded if not for their first party game development they'd be gone the way of Sega.

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        July 8, 2013 7:28 PM

        Well, except they're still dominating in handhelds for the most part. I think I would be OK with a Nintendo that only makes handhelds at this stage.

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        July 8, 2013 7:43 PM

        they underestimated CD? try they were blacklisted in the CD market.

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      July 8, 2013 6:41 PM

      Nintendo may have 'underestimated' scale of HD development. in other breaking news: the sky is blue, bears do shit in the woods, and the pope does in fact wear a hat.

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      July 8, 2013 6:48 PM

      It has been a very long time since Nintendo they kept pace with the performance race. I am honestly more worried about a lack of first party titles for the system at the moment. Where is the core games like the 3D Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, SmashBro, and etc. Not to mention zero new home grown IP to create new interest in the system. Nintendo fans are going to buy the system for the games I mentioned but your not going to attract new people with out fresh IP and ideas.

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        July 8, 2013 7:21 PM

        Nintendo taking their time normally isn't an issue, but with the PS4 and Xbox launching at reasonable price points at the end of the year, Nintendo could potentially bomb this holiday.

        I'm not sure an isometric Mario game with catsuits is going move a ton of units. Maybe catsuits + a $200 basic model...

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      July 8, 2013 7:55 PM

      They have double the pixels to program!

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