Shigeru Miyamoto: 'What We Create Is More Important Than the Amount Spent on Development'

During a recent Q&A with investors, Nintendo executive and storied designer Shigeru Miyamoto answered a question about the trend of rising development costs, saying that what Nintendo creates is far more important than what it spends on development.

The question related to rising development costs, asking if Nintendo's own expenses would increase in the future and if the company could mitigate those increases. Miyamoto stepped in to respond first, saying that while cost increases are inevitable, and Nintendo is focused on creating good and unique experiences first, it's also quite possible to make great games without spending massive piles of money.

Here's his response, in full:

Our research and development expenses have been increasing each year. Since our scale of development has grown, a corresponding increase in costs is, in some respects, inevitable.

However, our belief is that what we create is more important than the amount spent on development. We continue refining our products until we are confident that we have created something that our consumers will be satisfied with. With that in mind, what is important is to find ideas that are worth honing, and this has not changed since the era of Nintendo Entertainment System. Everyone has different interests, so we cannot make sweeping statements about what ideas are worth pursuing. However, one thing we are sure about is that it should be something which has not existed in the past. The more you polish something that has never existed before, the more value it brings. We believe that it is important to nurture developers who take this unique concept to heart, allocate funds to development if necessary, and release games only after we are confident in the product – and repeat this process over and over again.

On the other hand, in the entertainment business it is possible to create appealing products based on intriguing ideas, without incurring significant costs. Children’s toys are a prime example of this. We believe that not all products require large costs. Even in the case of video games, with the current technology it is possible to create fun games with a small number of developers in a short period of time. We believe it is important not to lose sight of this perspective.