Discuss it in Talkback

Update: Nintendo has posted streaming video of the speech, which can be viewed at http://www.visualwebcaster.com/Nintendo/38232/event.html

I'm sorry I lost the internet connection. I give you the not so live blog, what you would have gotten if I didn't lose it. It was a good talk but there wasn't really any new info, other than a Mario Galaxy trailer. I will get some pictures and videos up tonight.

12:10pm: He is wrapping up talking about how he thinks the industry can continue to change for the better. “We must always remember the human touch." “If we can convert my wife, I believe we can convert anyone."

12:08pm: Another experiment is Mario 128. Several spherical planets make up the stages. A long trailor is shown it is almost all new footage. Many classic Mario enemies are shown. We will be able to play it “This year".

12:06pm: The world is taken with the Miis, so Miyamoto is working on a new Wii channel. A popularity contest where people can see which Miis look the best. Finally, he wants to use Mario as one final example of tenacity. He has been in countless games lately. “Maybe too many." So what happened to Mario 128? The purpose of the original Spaceworld demo was to show how the GameCube technology could change Mario. Most of us have already played Mario 128. It was called Pikmin.

12:04pm: How could they make it a game? They didn't have to. They could be stand ins in other games, and could be shared with WiiConnect 24. He was seeing things backwards over the years. He was insisting that as hardware increased, so should the level of complexity. Miyamoto claims that they were actually reducing the number of people who wanted to use it. When he realized that the whole thing should just be easy, he finally figured it out. His tenacity paid off.

12:01pm: During Wii development, Iwata approached him and asked if he was still playing with the face creation game. A DS version was being toyed with, and it was exactly what Miyamoto was thinking. Surprisingly, it was created by a team outside of Miyamoto's own. He went over to them and worked with them to finish it.

11:59am: Then with the E-Reader and Game Boy he thought the technology was finally there. A video is shown of them Iwata, Miyamoto, and others dancing. It is a video from E3 2002. The crowd starts clapping with the music. He jokes that Iwata became president because of his dancing ability. Miyamoto thought it would be a huge hit, but inside Nintendo they still didn't think it was a game.

11:57am: In the 90s, the N64 disc system came out in Japan. Now he is showing Talent Studio for the system. In this program there were a wide variety of clothing options and the ability to make clothing. Miyamoto thought no one would resist the idea, but they still did.

11:55am: Tenacity is the final aspect of Miyamoto's creative vision. Nintendo waited for the right technology to come along for them to complete their vision. He is now showing the Disk Drive for the Famicom. At the time he thought it would be fun to use the game machine to draw your own face. A similar system to that of Mii creation is shown running on the Famicom Disk System. Miyamoto thought it was a great idea, but not many people agreed. The idea was put on a pending list and left behind.

11:52am: One example of prioritization is Wii baseball. Because Miyamoto is such a baseball fan, he wanted to add as much realism as possible. He admits the final product is far from realistic. They agreed that their time was better spent making the game feel more realistic, so they devoted most of their time to the key parts, pitching and hitting. They made a game that people who didn't understand the fundamentals of baseball could still enjoy. They actually had Mario characters instead of Miis at one point, but people decided they liked the Miis better. The prioritization is what allowed them to complete the game on time. Miyamoto does hope to play a more realistic baseball game at some point on the Wii.

11:49am: Now he wants to talk about prioritization. There never seems to be enough of anything when developing a game. He doesn't want to disappoint people, so he often complains to Iwata about these things, but he often responds like most bosses, with a “Too bad.".

11:47am: In this sense, Zelda became the inspiration for Animal Crossing. The interesting thing with Animal Crossing was that it was enjoyed by casual and hardcore gamers at the same time.

11:46am: Personal enjoyment and fulfillment is good too. Single player games like Solitaire and Tetris are discussed. Some may think Zelda is like that, but Miyamoto didn't necessarily think so. He thought it could create a different kind of communication around the game. The first Zelda game did not go over well when he first showed it to people at Nintendo. They wanted him to make just one way through the dungeons, but of course he ignored them. Rather than make it easier. Miyamoto decided to take their sword away from the very beginning. He wanted players to talk with other players and exchange information in order to make it through the game. It wasn't a competition, but a real life collaboration.

11:42am: Begins talking about Wii Play. Initially it seems too elementary for core gamers, but eventually they start enjoying it too. It's a game they can play with their non gaming friends. “Maybe all you game reviewers out there need to add a new category to how you score games. How fun is it for people who don't play them?"

11:40am: Developers need to remember that the players that play it won't know anything about the game. They need to force themselves to look at it from the point of view of the gamers. If Miyamoto does not think that is being accomplished, me may just up end the tea table and push the game back.

11:36am: Shows some videos of people playing DS for the very first time. People are acting quite silly as they play what I think is Nintendogs.

11:35am: Moving away from Nintendo's vision and more towards his own vision. Individual elements of a game are not his primary focus. Instead he focuses on the core element of fun. He shows actual pictures of people playing at E3. They all look very happy.

11:34am: There were concerns, even with himself, when they released the Wii. He was worried that people were too used to the old way of playing. While development was going on, he acted almost as an evangelist inside the company. This gave himself confidence. It wasn't until last spring at E3 that they really felt the risk was worth taking, as they saw the lines and happy faces playing the Wii.

11:32am: Last element of corporate vision is risk. Nintendo questioned their own definition of what a video game is. The design of the Wii is their biggest risk yet. GameCube was a step towards this direction but it wasn't far enough. He sites his idea to make the A button larger.

11:28am: The modified DS has no buttons on it. It just uses the touch screen. They wanted to make a museum where young people, and people of other interests, would still enjoy the museum.

11:26am: Now he is talking about the DS just a little bit. Explains vision to create new ways to play for everyone. Shows a picture of a building, he claims it's his house then admits he is lying. He then picks on Bill's pronunciation of something. The building is a museum for the cards Nintendo used to make. Miyamoto was put in charge of producing the attractions for this museum. Verses of poetry are displayed on plasma screens on the floor. Visitors receive a modified Nintendo DS which is connected to a computer. The DS is used to customize the experience as you go through the museum.

11:25am: They actually wondered at one point, given the advances in the portable market, if they even needed a home console. The final result of the Wii controller really made them feel like they moved outside of the long tunnel they had been in.

11:24am: Shows some Wii prototype ideas. These are similar to ones seen on the net recently. (Think big starman button). It was an incredibly involved and long process to arrive at the final Wii controller. The final decision was to mimic the look of a TV remote.

11:22am: Balance is important in game design. One group of people devoted to new ways a play, another devoted to traditional ways, and a third devoted to third party relations.

11:20am: Second element of Nintendo's vision, is their devotion to entertainment. Miyamoto's background in industrial design allowed him to be involved in the design of every Nintendo controller. He does not want us to think that any one person created a controller though. Every controller, including Wii's, is a group collaboration.

11:18am: He shows a picture of her Mii playing Wii baseball. She's making Miis for everyone in the nieghborhood. Her creating something is her first step towards game design. He sees himself competing with her as things go forward. When she comes up with that great idea Miyamoto says he can retire.

11:15am: On Valentines day, Miyamoto came home late from work expecting his wife to be asleep. He though she waited up for him to give him chocolates. She was actually casting her votes on the Everybody Votes channel. Most surprising, she downloaded the channel all by herself. Things have really changed in Miyamoto's house.

11:14am: Dog training made him want to create Nintendogs. Finally, with Nintendogs, Miyamoto's wife finally looked at video games differently. Then came Brain Age. She now accepts video games into her daily life. The Wife-o-meter goes up another knotch.

11:12am: What do you like better, Dogs or Cats on the Everybody votes channel was inspred by a dispute he had with his wife. He likes dogs, she likes cats. The world agrees with him. He shows a picture of his dog. It's name is Pick.

11:10am: Three elements of Nintendo's corporate vision. 1. The expanded audience. He talks about the “Wife-o-Meter". It measures the interest level of his own wife. Super Mario Bros was not an important moment in his wife's life. Ocarina of Time didn't affect his wife, but it did affect his daughter. His wife watched her play. This moved the Wife-o-meter up a bit. When Animal Crossing came out, his wife agreed to touch the controller, and she enjoyed cutting down trees and sending letters. The Wife-o-meter moved up a bit higher, but Miyamoto still wasn't happy. He wanted it higher.

11:09am: What is the creative vision of any game designer, and what is Nintendo's vision. Shots of Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Star Fox, Zelda, and Mario are on screen.

11:08am: In 2004 no Nintendo titles were in the top 5. Reporters stopped asking about the games themselves and asked about their effect on gamers instead. This hurt the reputation of the industry.

11:07am: Talks about Donkey Kong. Shows pictures of him in a necktie playing Super Mario World. Shows the top 5 best selling games from 1998. Goldeneye for N64 is the number 1 seller. Zelda is number 2.

11:05am: He doesn't actually come out on stage right away. Instead they finish his Mii on screen. Bill Trinnen is on stage to help him. Moves on to use the Wii photo channel to do the presentation. Shows a garden on screen. It's his garden. He's looking for Pikmin in the garden.

11:00am: Executive direction of GDC is on stage and we can't hear him very well. He's announcing Miyamoto by quoting Will Wright.

10:55am: We were just told that everything will start soon. I'm not sure what that means.

10:50am: Still has not started...

10:45am: Got a talkback thread up. Still has not started yet...

10:40am: Still waiting. I haven't fallen off the Internet yet. Someone is prompting us to turn off our phones. It should be starting soon.

10:35am: Running a bit late. Still no sign of it beginning. GDC volunteers are struggling to find seats for everyone.

10:25am: Still waiting for it to begin. I hope everything continues to work. :) The crowds are piling it. Non-press were lined up all the way around the block for this thing. We'll see if anything new and exciting comes out if it.

10:20am: Systems seem to be a go. Hopefully this will work for you all.

10:16am: I'm sitting at the keynote and people are getting ready. I apologize in advance if this just stops working as WiFi is spotty at best.