Miyamoto ‘uneasy’ with virtual reality

It’s looking unlikely that Nintendo will follow the likes of Sony, Valve and Oculus into the virtual reality sector.

That’s because the platform holder’s development boss Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the very nature of VR is at odds with the design ethos that Nintendo hopes to pursue.

When you think about what virtual reality is, which is one person putting on some goggles and playing by themselves kind of over in a corner, or maybe they go into a separate room and they spend all their time alone playing in that virtual reality, that’s in direct contrast with what it is we’re trying to achieve with Wii U,” he told TIME.

So I have a little bit of uneasiness with whether or not that’s the best way for people to play. From Nintendo’s perspective, there’s interest in the technology, but we think it might be better suited to some sort of attraction style of entertainment, say something at a video game arcade or things like that, rather than something that one person plays alone.”

In contrast, Miyamoto says Wii U is designed around the idea of getting the whole room involved in a game.

As game designers, we at Nintendo are interested in VR technology and what it can do, but at the same time what we’re trying to do with Wii U is to create games for everyone in the living room,” he added.

We want the Wii U to be a game system that brings video gamers into the living room. It’s intended to be fun not only for the person who’s playing, but also for the people who are watching.”

Nintendo’s American boss Reggie Files-Aime last week distanced the company from another very popular technology, Twitch video streaming, which he said isn’t a lot of fun”.