In a recent report the thoughts of Shigeru Miyamoto are laid out for readers to explore, which consist of finding different avenues of charging people for games, the dangers of free-to-play models, how he wants his peers to deliver titles at fixed prices without over-charging players, and his overall thoughts on creating a substantial business in today’s games industry.
The new report comes from publication site Bloomberg, where the writer had the chance to record some of Miyamoto’s thoughts at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC) on August 22nd in Yokohama, Japan.
The video-game designer that helped make Super Mario and Donkey Kong household names, stated that:
“We’re lucky to have such a giant market, so our thinking is, if we can deliver games at reasonable prices to as many people as possible, we will see big profits.”
The piece followed up on Miyamoto by saying that he and the crew are exploring different ways of charging people for their games. One move is to “shun” the free-to-play model and instead deliver titles at fixed prices without over-charging customers.
Miyamoto is said in the piece to have criticized the free-to-play model — which includes loot-boxes and microtransactions. The report states that this model drives record profits using a lower or higher price point while “nudging” players to continually buy in-game products and rare items with real money.
Later in the piece, Miyamoto notes that he’s not sure if this business model of offering a fixed price will lead to success in today’s games market (including the mobile scene), but he’ll stick to his guns and take it to his grave by making games for everyone that sports reasonable prices until it’s an industry standard:
“I can’t say that our fixed-cost model has really been a success, but we’re going to continue pushing it forward until it becomes entrenched. That way everyone can develop games in a comfortable environment. By focusing on bringing games to the widest range of people possible, we can continue boosting our mobile game business.”
Lastly, Miyamoto expresses his concerns that not enough game developers are subscription friendly. Using the music industry as a reference point, he believes that developers should learn from the music industry by adopting subscription-style services:
“It’s necessary for developers to learn to get along with subscription-style services. When seeking a partner for this, it’s important to find someone who understands the value of your software. Then customers will feel the value in your apps and software and develop a habit of paying money for them.”
With all of that said, what’s your thoughts on Miyamoto’s vision of Nintendo moving forward in today’s games industry and what other developers should take heed to and apply? Do you think he’s right, wrong, or somewhere in-between?
You can read the full report by hitting up the given link.
