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The Reforming Artificial Worlds
The Electronic Marketplace has changed. Products can be sold to anywhere from
anywhere, if one only has internet. The Internet is the only required to unite programmers as well
it seems. Marketplaces are minuscule communities over vast distances. Games have especially
changed the marketplace. Formerly, they could only be played on TV’s with only one application
soldered into the game hardware. From “Angry Birds” to “Tetris”, almost every device has some
form of game and a method to build a business. Development companies keep forming in new
ways with each their unique design form.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are the first party companies or dedicated hardware
manufacturers in the Industry. Each hardware manufacturer builds a new game dedicated console
nearly every 5 years and each corporation has their own reputation: Nintendo’s Wii for its
motion control, Sony’s Play Station 3 for its stronger processor and graphics capabilities and
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for its online community. Distinguished third party companies such as
Ubisoft and Electronic Arts have made themselves known with their variety of well -received
franchises utilizing the hardware of the aforementioned three.
Nintendo is widely known as one of the earliest console developers. Currently, this
corporation sells console and portable hardware. Nintendo is the owner of the game boy and DS
(Dual Screen) lines. The Kyoto, Japan based company is known for developing disk stored
games for players of all ages accompanying said hardware. (Oak) The primary branch in the U.S.
is located in Washington. (GlassDoor) Nintendo consists of many subsidiaries as well, such as:
Hal Laboratories, Game Freak, Project Sora, and Retro Studios. Nintendo’s central headquarters
in Japan has over a thousand employees with over 500 more employees in America. (GlassDoor)
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Fusajiro Yamauchi established Nintendo in 1889. Their first products were hanafuda
playing cards which are similar to standard American playing cards. The company did not alter
their business to electronic games until 1975. Nintendo then created the Famicom (or better
known as the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.) in 1982 after the recent decline in the
gaming market after the death of the Atari home console. (Oak) Nintendo has led the hardware
market in previous years by creating new ways to play such as touch screen interface, minianalog sticks, motion control, 3D graphics as well as glasses free 3D. (Oak) Modern consumers
still view them as dated though due to lack of High definition.
Satoru Iwata is the current president of Nintendo. He is often viewed as the man who
created before he managed others creations. In his childhood, Iwata developed various executed
via a calculator.
“After leaving high school, Iwata enrolled at the prestigious Tokyo Institute of
Technology, where he majored in Computer Science. Iwata began to work as a part-time
games programmer for HAL Laboratory, Inc., while continuing to pursue his tertiary
studies. And finally, in 1982, Iwata joined HAL on a full-time basis.” (IGN)
Iwata developed the “Kirby” game series which is still running to date. Iwata was president of
Hal Laboratory through the 90s until he transferred to central Nintendo where he soon became
President of the Corporation. (IGN)
Miyamoto is often known as the father of modern gaming. Shigeru Miyamoto was born
in Kyoto Japan. Delving into Mr. Miyamoto’s childhood displays the source material for the
mechanics of his various famous games. Even through his years at Kanazawa college of Art he
seemed to have his head in the clouds. After five years and a degree Miyamoto started as a staff
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artist in their planning department. Miyamoto’s first ticket to fame came early in his career. The
newly realized Nintendo of America (N.O.A.) tried “to establish itself as a player” by creating a
game called radar scope. Shigeru Miyamoto created Donkey Kong using N.O.A.’s wasted arcade
machines. It was an instant success that introduced Nintendo’s Icon: Mario. Miyamoto directed
and produced other famous franchises in years to come: Super Mario Bros., The Legend of
Zelda, F-Zero, Mario Kart, and Starfox. “He is currently the Senior Marketing Director of
Nintendo and General Manager of Nintendo EAD.” (Mario Mayhem)
Nintendo’s are currently the hot sellers in the home console market. The Nintendo Wii
has sold eighty-eight million units worldwide versus the Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 which
have sold fifty-two million and fifty-six million respectively. In the handheld market, the
Nintendo DS has sold one hundred forty eight million versus the Play station Portable which has
sold sixty-nine million. (VGchartz) Although Nintendo has dominated the handheld market since
its Gameboy, the Nintendo 3DS, released in March 2011 has not been well received as the sales
numbers show. Since then, the console has already received a price drop of over thirty percent.
(Fleming, 2011) In their software market, “Mario Kart Wii” and “Wii Sports: Resort” are still in
the top 10 selling games worldwide. Each was released over two years ago. (VGchartz)
The American division is individualized due its international superiors. Nintendo of
Japan is known to make the decisions for the company worldwide. The company has a right to
this due to their current success and their revenue estimated at $86m. Various employees in The
United States said that the company makes it hard to transfer departments or attain promotions.
The atmosphere is very casual with people in dyed hair in jeans. Life is never a bore, with new
products and events constantly flowing through the business from translations to technology
displays. (Glassdoor) As a first party company, Nintendo isn’t just a dealer to the gamers but to
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the producers as well. Developers publishing on Nintendo consoles view that they are building
their games for a company that built hardware for themselves. EA felt as though they and other
third parties are not being promoted on the platform which makes business difficult. (Chan,
2010)
The market is growing due to people identifying with games commonly by means of
smart phones, iPhones, Facebook, and motion gaming. The market is changing due to games for
iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. costing as little as a dollar. Many iOS game companies are speculated to
be unemployed game developers. (Takahashi) A typical console game for the Wii, Xbox 360 or
Play Station 3, costs $40 to $60. Iwata addressed this issue in Nintendo’s Game Developer’s
Conference 2011 press conference; he said that times like this are scary for developers. The CEO
also conveyed that he hopes that consumers will look for quality over quantity. (Scavio, 2011)
Due to lack of sales, financing for game projects have dropped. Many modern games contain
downloadable content to which most of it can cost anywhere from $.50 to $10. The Market keeps
shifting. Since the Nintendo Wii’s launch on November 19, 2006, companies of this industry
have started building more motion based games. Microsoft and Sony have each developed their
own motion hardware; even the iPhone and iPad have gyroscope based software. Markets in
recent years have also avoided the physical store front with the addition of retail games being
sold on PSN, Xbox Live and new services: On Live and Steam. (Takahashi, 2009) These recent
developments have little effect on employment. Nintendo of America is currently hiring the
ordinary staff of various professionals-translators, character modeling, game designers, etc.
(Glassdoor)
To be an employee of an ever changing market, one has to be prepared to change
themself as well. I am interested in working as a game interface designer among many things.
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This would entail directly formatting the heads up display, the organization of the menus and
ultimately the player/Artificial intelligence interaction. Ultimately my desire is to be a lead
designer for Nintendo within Kyoto. To attain a job of that caliber, understanding the jobs of the
people beneath is a necessity, so I want to also have an emphasis in Game Programming. Thus, I
also want to become programmer to understand the intricacies of the coding as well. Doing so
will also increase my job security and balance me is a developer.
Though difficult, the foreign language Japanese could prove effective in this line of work.
Having already taken the equivalent of three semesters of Japanese, It only takes a few more
classes to obtain a minor in Japanese. Upon that time, a semester abroad could be very simple. In
that time, I plan to make connections and study the culture to understand how a product must be
modified in order to sell well. Stationed in that country are two of the three major player and
various veteran game companies: Capcom, Sega, etc. Japan is still the gaming capital of the
world. On top of that, their culture is catching on globally. Studying Japanese mythology would
also be useful as recently, America has become more interested in Japanese tradition.
Only one class is actually a game design class, the others are introducing me into the
field. It will however prove useful learning how to fill the surroundings and proper
environmental displacements. Environment building, however, will not be the extent of my
computer science ability. The algorithms analysis course will probably be the most useful course
in the group. Such a class requires students to develop faster solutions in their code as to create
intricate games, detailed textured objects, complex movement within an environment, and a
lightweight interface for what it controls. The Animation Workshop will demonstrate the
processes of storyboarding, cut-scenes [previously rendered videos for plot], etc.
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The math courses have demonstrated the basis of the logic to engineer movement of
characters and object within the virtual world. Calculus teaches how to take the points in space
of an object in motion and use it to determine the speed and acceleration rate which will
ultimately be programmed into the object’s movement. In pre-calculus, horizontal limits are
taught which could be used as a max speed that an object approaches as time moves on. Using
these skills, one can develop a sequence in which a player tries to capture a fleeing opponent
with a lower max speed yet high acceleration causing the player to avoid objects to maintain a
speed to catch the opponent. Most of the practicalities of Physics are teaching students how to
utilize what they already known such as in the aforementioned example.
Few students have an opportunity to directly work with a professional development
studio. Instead, programmers build their own company with its own clean slate. Another student
within one of my clubs has posed interest in creating games as a group once we have received
enough training to perform at a professional level. We should also attempt to build the game for
a selective console online marketplace: Play Station Network, Xbox live marketplace, or
Wiiware. On one of these networks, making a name for oneself would feel effortless due to
competition. Though this project would prove the most transferrable, other forms of software
development would prove very professional. Japanese studies have yielded me a project of which
I am currently undertaking. The program sifts through a database of Japanese words and
generates intelligible sentences randomly. It could also be preferred among students in college
classes as it will organize itself by chapter and quiz user through the selected Index. Upon
completing such a project, it will demonstrate real world capabilities on a resume. In the last two
years, The Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco has proven itself to be a useful
network of up and coming developers. Every year, it has a day for college students within the
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game development major to come to learn from industry professionals and receive criticism as
well. Within the field, employers will often ask for a sample of previous projects to determine
employment. The capstone will involve developing a game.
Though developers take many different paths, only the ones which arrive at the same
destination of success are revered. The time has come when, Selling entrepreneurs’ products
when one is not even present at their store front is commonplace. Companies will have to change
with market to maintain their embodiment in their field. The places in which a business can buy
and sell at are only limited by the number of cultures they can engage with. Overpopulation and
wieldy tools can only lead to greater competition. Scavengers of a new technology will have the
advantage upon those still discovering this horizon.
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Works Cited
Chan, T. (2010, December 18). EA: Nintendo Needs to Drop Wii Price, Help Third Parties Nintendo Life. Nintendo Life Retrieved September 29, 2011, from
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2010/12/ea_nintendo_needs_to_drop_wii_price_help
_third_parties
Fleming, R. (2011, September 22). After a rocky start, the Nintendo 3DS is tops in Japan.
Technology News, Product Reviews, Software Downloads | Digital Trends. Retrieved
September 28, 2011, from http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/after-a-rocky-start-thenintendo-3ds-is-tops-in-japan/
IGN. (n.d.). IGN: Satoru Iwata Biography. IGN . Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
http://stars.ign.com/objects/958/958699_biography.html
Oak, M. (n.d.). History of Nintendo. Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Retrieved
September 28, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-nintendo.html
Scavio, Megan, Iwata, Satoru,(speaker). (2011, March 2): Iwata GDC Keynote [Video file].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwAdqVi39Y
Shigeru Miyamoto biography - the man behind Mario. (n.d.). Mario Mayhem - Super Mario
Bros. Fun, Games, weird stuff, downloads and Information!. Retrieved September 28,
2011, from http://www.mariomayhem.com/shigeru_miyamoto.php
Takahashi, D. (2009, May 9). The top 12 trends of the video game industry | VentureBeat.
Games Beat. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
http://venturebeat.com/2009/05/15/the-top-12-trends-of-the-video-game-industry/
Walton, B. (n.d.). vgcharz.com. vgcharz.com. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
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http://www.vgcharz.com
Working at Nintendo of America | Glassdoor. (n.d.). Glassdoor – an inside look at jobs &
companies. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from
http://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Nintendo-of-AmericaEI_IE4173.11,30.htm
Scavio, Megan, Iwata, Satoru,(speaker). (2011, March 2): Iwata GDC Keynote [Video file].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwAdqVi39Y