Miyamoto details his role as a producer, looks back on simpler times in the industry

In a true meeting of the minds, Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi sat down with Shigeru Miyamoto to talk about their time in the game industry, along with the similarities the two have seen throughout their careers.

The talk’s title, “I couldn’t do anything, so I became a producer,” was suggested by Miyamoto, as it reflected his personal feelings about his current place in game development. Miyamoto said in his 30s and 40s he felt like he couldn’t do any development work without a team, which eventually led to him becoming a producer in his 60s. This is in stark contrast to the early days of Nintendo’s games, where Miyamoto and a small team could tackle NES/SNES games without issue.

Miyamoto says today’s games require some very skilled experts in numerous fields, and he can’t offer the support those developers need, so he’s shifted into a producer role. Even as a producer, Miyamoto feels he can’t quite offer exactly what the teams need, but he hopes his involvement in projects is useful. In the end, Miyamoto said he would like his fellow teammates to feel glad about his involvement in a project, and hopes they’d want to work with him again moving forward.

As far as what Miyamoto does as a producer, it amounts to giving the team what they need when they need it. It’s Miyamoto’s job to fill roles that are required to keep development flowing, and sometimes that requirement isn’t known until a project is already rolling. Miyamoto rather frankly stated that the best teams to produce for were the ones that didn’t need his input, as a team requiring his help meant they were facing problems.

This conversation snippet between Itoi and Miyamoto is just one section of a 12-part series that will be shared over the next 2 weeks. We’ll keep an eye out for future installments and share any pertinent details.