Miyamoto explains his stance on violent games, details why the industry needs to expand

A portion of a CVG interview with Miyamoto…

CVG: There’s nothing in your games that risks offending those of a nervous disposition. But many people seem to fear the effect violent games have on society. What are your thoughts on titles like Modern Warfare 2? Why aren’t you interested in making games like these?

Miyamoto: In our work, we are trying to make video games as relevant as possible for a wide ranger of generations of people. I do not think we should limit the audience to a particular category, for example, young kids or young males, or a limited number of people. At least, that’s how I’ve been trying to make my own games.

We just talked about the opportunities for the Academy recognising video games as an art form. We really appreciate that kind of opportunity because that can change the mindset of the general public, to how they conceive video games per se.

But when it comes to the question of how each individual game designer or developer should make their games, I don’t think we should try to intervene in how they are trying to express themselves in whichever format.

It’s a question of how we can make the appropriate communication so that only the people who are appropriate to play with a particular game are able to play it; how we can make enough information accessible to the parents - what types of games can be played by their children.

That goes for us as video game companies - and our marketing people must be very careful as to how they are promoting which types of products to which audiences.

I think most importantly, from the viewpoint of the evolution of the video games, we have to be very careful about the very great potential video games have as a way for people to express themselves.

Sometimes, games designers tend to focus their attention on a limited particular area of their expression. That is simply narrowing down the potential of what video games can do

I really hope each individual creator has a wider view so they can appreciate and try to expand the potential of video games.