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"What if Shigeru Miyamoto was an Investment Banker & Not a Games Designer?"

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Sun 21/04/02 at 15:53
Regular
Posts: 787
A strange question you may think?

Well, imagine an alternate world.

No, dinosaurs, ruling monkeys, aliens or evil robots do not populate this world. This is the alternate dimension that exists where different decisions affected the world, and this specific decision affected the lives of millions of gamers around the world.

Shigeru Miyamoto’s importance to the history of gaming cannot be over-emphasised.
Although he didn’t create the idea of electronic games, he is without a doubt the creative visionary behind modern video games. He emerged as game designs most revered genius; his ideals & characters played leading roles in the popularisation of home console gaming. Not only has he created some of the very finest games ever made, and in doing so, he trail blazed new ways of thinking about the videogame as a medium for artistic expression.
The decisions he made many years ago would not only have an effect the lives of gamers, but also on the outside world as a whole.
Miyamotos’ visionary designs have sold many generations of Nintendo hardware, and without him, the NES, SNES, N64 & Gamecube might have been total failures…or never even existed…

Miyamoto had been at Nintendo for several years as a graphic artist before he was offered the chance to create a game of his own design, but what would happened if he never worked for Nintendo??

A young Shigeru Miyamoto enjoyed growing up with a carefree attitude towards life, he was a dreamer and had great artistic skill, but he was approaching an important part of his life.
After graduating from Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts, Shigeru agonized over what kind of job he should get. Although he had no interest in traditional business, together with its rigid monotony, he discussed the matter at length with his father. His father told him to go with the safer option of working for a financial institution as an investment banker instead of an unsafe career such as computer games, which would be filled with potential failure if they didn’t become a success.

So Shigeru Miyamoto became a banker, forgetting about the burgeoning computer games industry, as financial security was important.
One of the key breakthroughs in videogame history was about to happen, but as he wasn’t in the industry, it just completely passed Shigeru by…

One day, as Shigeru was on his way to work, he noticed a street carnival going on, with many colourful entertainers, performers and dancers showing off to crowds of people. Whilst walking up a flight of stairs on his way to the train station, a flying object nearly hit Shigeru!
At the top of the stairs was an angry ape!
The irate simian had escaped from the street carnival and was throwing projectiles down the stairs at passers-by.
The item that had nearly hit Shigeru was a small barrel! Although it had narrowly missed him, he thought the whole incident was hilarious, and later told his friends about the ‘Monkey Kong’ character throwing barrels down stairs. However, after a few days, the memory was forgotten, and the opportunity to make ‘Donkey Kong’ into a video game never materialised.

So what other things would have happened or not happened if Shigeru Miyamoto wasn’t in the games industry?


Nintendo, without the creative genius of Miyamoto san, had many financial troubles, eventually going out of business as they were unable to create the breakthrough games that would lead to video games becoming more successful. Donkey Kong would have been a huge hit, but without Miyamoto, it would never have been made.
Video games didn’t catch on with the mass market at all.
Nintendo didn’t achieve great success, as they didn’t have the killer apps such as ‘Donkey Kong’, ‘Super Mario Bros’, ‘Zelda’, ‘Metroid’ etc, so they went out of business, the Nintendo-Sony relationship and eventual split leading to the Playstation never happened, so Sony never entered the video game industry, remaining in the electrical equipment market instead. Games consoles never caught on, and our great hobby never actually happened.

And/or

As he wasn’t around to innovate the control pad design, and make them more ergonomically efficient, millions of gamers grew up with arthritic hands and wrists and other associated ailments from playing games with poorly designed controllers and joysticks.

And/or

Without Miyamoto’s rather peaceful attitude towards life, which translated into his games, developers in the future made even more violent games, as gamers didn’t have experience in nice peaceful games; human beings turned even more violent games to fulfil their bloodlust.


We all have one person to thank for the games we all know and love today. Without Shigeru Miyamoto’s brilliance in the industry, his creative flair and innovative designs never existed, so games were a non-starter.
Thank you Mr. Miyamoto, games would never be the same without you.
Sun 21/04/02 at 19:59
Regular
"Wants Spymate on dv"
Posts: 3,025
I suppose this topic is a bit like 'It's a Wonderful Life'.
What would the gaming world be like without Miyamoto san???
Sun 21/04/02 at 16:59
Regular
"Link to the Future"
Posts: 719
Games wouldn't be the same without Miyamoto, he is a God.
Sun 21/04/02 at 15:53
Regular
"Wants Spymate on dv"
Posts: 3,025
A strange question you may think?

Well, imagine an alternate world.

No, dinosaurs, ruling monkeys, aliens or evil robots do not populate this world. This is the alternate dimension that exists where different decisions affected the world, and this specific decision affected the lives of millions of gamers around the world.

Shigeru Miyamoto’s importance to the history of gaming cannot be over-emphasised.
Although he didn’t create the idea of electronic games, he is without a doubt the creative visionary behind modern video games. He emerged as game designs most revered genius; his ideals & characters played leading roles in the popularisation of home console gaming. Not only has he created some of the very finest games ever made, and in doing so, he trail blazed new ways of thinking about the videogame as a medium for artistic expression.
The decisions he made many years ago would not only have an effect the lives of gamers, but also on the outside world as a whole.
Miyamotos’ visionary designs have sold many generations of Nintendo hardware, and without him, the NES, SNES, N64 & Gamecube might have been total failures…or never even existed…

Miyamoto had been at Nintendo for several years as a graphic artist before he was offered the chance to create a game of his own design, but what would happened if he never worked for Nintendo??

A young Shigeru Miyamoto enjoyed growing up with a carefree attitude towards life, he was a dreamer and had great artistic skill, but he was approaching an important part of his life.
After graduating from Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts, Shigeru agonized over what kind of job he should get. Although he had no interest in traditional business, together with its rigid monotony, he discussed the matter at length with his father. His father told him to go with the safer option of working for a financial institution as an investment banker instead of an unsafe career such as computer games, which would be filled with potential failure if they didn’t become a success.

So Shigeru Miyamoto became a banker, forgetting about the burgeoning computer games industry, as financial security was important.
One of the key breakthroughs in videogame history was about to happen, but as he wasn’t in the industry, it just completely passed Shigeru by…

One day, as Shigeru was on his way to work, he noticed a street carnival going on, with many colourful entertainers, performers and dancers showing off to crowds of people. Whilst walking up a flight of stairs on his way to the train station, a flying object nearly hit Shigeru!
At the top of the stairs was an angry ape!
The irate simian had escaped from the street carnival and was throwing projectiles down the stairs at passers-by.
The item that had nearly hit Shigeru was a small barrel! Although it had narrowly missed him, he thought the whole incident was hilarious, and later told his friends about the ‘Monkey Kong’ character throwing barrels down stairs. However, after a few days, the memory was forgotten, and the opportunity to make ‘Donkey Kong’ into a video game never materialised.

So what other things would have happened or not happened if Shigeru Miyamoto wasn’t in the games industry?


Nintendo, without the creative genius of Miyamoto san, had many financial troubles, eventually going out of business as they were unable to create the breakthrough games that would lead to video games becoming more successful. Donkey Kong would have been a huge hit, but without Miyamoto, it would never have been made.
Video games didn’t catch on with the mass market at all.
Nintendo didn’t achieve great success, as they didn’t have the killer apps such as ‘Donkey Kong’, ‘Super Mario Bros’, ‘Zelda’, ‘Metroid’ etc, so they went out of business, the Nintendo-Sony relationship and eventual split leading to the Playstation never happened, so Sony never entered the video game industry, remaining in the electrical equipment market instead. Games consoles never caught on, and our great hobby never actually happened.

And/or

As he wasn’t around to innovate the control pad design, and make them more ergonomically efficient, millions of gamers grew up with arthritic hands and wrists and other associated ailments from playing games with poorly designed controllers and joysticks.

And/or

Without Miyamoto’s rather peaceful attitude towards life, which translated into his games, developers in the future made even more violent games, as gamers didn’t have experience in nice peaceful games; human beings turned even more violent games to fulfil their bloodlust.


We all have one person to thank for the games we all know and love today. Without Shigeru Miyamoto’s brilliance in the industry, his creative flair and innovative designs never existed, so games were a non-starter.
Thank you Mr. Miyamoto, games would never be the same without you.

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