The Economist had the opportunist to speak with Shigeru Miyamoto, game designer at Nintendo and all around icon of the video game industry regarding the gaming industry and the recession's impact upon it. In the interview,  Miyamoto had some interesting things to say about the audience of video games and how it has changed in recent years, the Wii, Nintendo's late entry into the online market, and technology. The whole interview is available for your perusal here.

Miyamoto on slow game sales:

"Well, I think any entertainment products are less susceptible to changes in the economy. The fact that in 2009 we were not able to sell more than we did in 2008 was simply that in comparison, we were not able to produce fun-enough products. There are always ups and downs in this business. As long as we create unique and unprecedented experiences with video games, there should be nothing to worry about."

Miyamoto on industry innovation:

"Of course, even if I have something in mind, I am not in a position to say anything about that! But one thing I can say is that I am realizing the increasing potential for video games. Not long ago, the hardware manufacturers were simply competing in terms of which company could come up with the most sophisticated computer graphics, rendering technologies and so forth. But today we are seeing the competition from a different perspective. People are asking what kind of gameplay experience particular hardware can generate. At Nintendo we are trying to see video-game technology from the perspective of how we can integrate some of these technologies into daily life, like the Wii Fit."

Finally, Miyamoto on online gaming:

"It is often said that Nintendo was rather late in advancing into the network world. Actually we simply wanted to take sufficient time to make it a proper business, and make it as comfortable an environment as possible for consumers. Starting from the launch of the Wii, we became more proactive. I think it is obvious that when everyone is connected online, there will be enormous opportunity for me to create something really unique. But my job is to try to entertain as many people as possible, and I see all Wii owners as the audience. Of course, we have Mario Kart, which can be played online by multiple people. So we are gradually expanding the experiences using the internet, but my own personal focus is to try to entertain people, even if they are not connected to the internet. That is my first priority."

I will never be doubtful of Shigeru Miyamoto's ability to always be creative in such a competitive industry and this interview does reflect that very well. His thoughts on online gaming are very interesting to say the least, especially since it's such a must-have component to have in a game during this generation of console gaming. I don't have much experience when it comes to gaming online with the Wii, but I'm sure everyone can agree that the friend code is certainly a bane for those who crave an easy to access online gaming experience.

I was particularly impressed with his response on industry innovation, citing how people ask about the gameplay they can expect to see from the hardware's capability to generate it. Taking that response and applying it to the Wii, I think it's a very fair stance to have, especially since the Wii, admittedly, isn't all that powerful. It is still possible to generate a very fun gaming experience even with the lack of power in the hardware, look at the DS, which is just now entering a stage of development that would probably push its limits as a small device. Nintendo is often concerned with revolutionizing (I think) the gaming industry and they have done so in the past with success and limited success, I'm just happy that they're still doing what they want to improve gaming experiences for everyone, gamer or not.

Source: The Economist