Miyamoto worried over abundance of gun-focused games

I'm guessing he means that shooters are overcrowding the market, which I've heard before...

I think the over-abundance of guns in games is a tad concerning for a few reasons to be honest. In relation to children playing shooters - yes games have ratings, but of course in reality they are only partially effective at best, and one way or another kids will get their hands on the latest COD or Battlefield. Sure it is the parent's responsibility, but merely announcing that does not make the problem disappear; the fact remains that children (and adults!) being exposed to and playing so many shooters, to the point where themes of shooting and killing is normalised, may be a cause for concern.

But even apart from all that, I think the amount of shooter games around is a bit depressing from a creative perspective too. It's weird how, when given a medium in which we can pretty much create anything - where we can allow our imaginations to run wild and continually innovate - we end up falling back on shooting people/killing/violence as our most popular means of entertainment. Sorta says a lot about humanity I guess!

Well it is the parents job to know what their kids are playing and learn by being there at the store when the kid is buying a game plus she or he could read up on games to learn so that statement was stupid.

i only partially agree with him, i do think there is an over abundance of gun focused games, but only because it seems like every developer feels the need to make one. between last gen and this current gen im pretty sure there has been at least an 80% increase on the amnt of FPS games, and they are all similar in experience. Im not saying there is anything wrong with having a FPS or a shooter period, i just think that companies should be a little more creative then swarming the market with Shooter games. How bout they come up with more games that have a more enticing story line that would make a gamer actually ask "what am i getting myself into" or " what will happen next?" I think thats what myamoto should've said. "Lets focus more on the objects in the player's games space, such as the environment or what they can interact with, instead of "what else can i shoot""

Stick to what you know Miyamoto.

Hey Miyamoto... maybe you're thinking a bit too much about "young gamers." Something tells me this guy and Michael Jackson would've been bunk-buddies.

I am worried over the abundance of recent terrible Nintendo games.

We need more SPACE SIM GAMES, come on.

It's up to the parent to decide what's best for the kid. So, it's not really that big of a deal.

he's right, there are way too many gun games. lets get more swords.

Miyamoto, you're a tool. Him being worried about guns in games would be like Bill Gates worrying about plumbers in games. Violent FPS games tend to be M-rated, they're not catering to children, and even if they were, there hasn't even been any unanimous correlation between violent video games and violent behavior.

This attitude is reminiscent of the media's attitude when they freak out about gratuitous levels of sex/violence in gaming. To them, it's different from movies, because video games are seen as inherently and fundamentally a children's toy.As I got older, Nintendo didn't keep pace with my maturing tastes and kept looking and marketing itself like a children's toy. Miyamoto's opinion doesn't surprise me; it's why I left Nintendo for Sony all those years ago.

The answer Is simple, children should be given a stick and some string, let them be content with that. Any argument just tell them about the Victorian chimney sweepers, should shut them up.

That why we have "RATINGS" system?

I don't think he should worry about it. I mean there are ratings on games right?

T for teen

M for Mature 18+

The parents buy rated M games and then later on blame the gaming industry for making their kids violent is stupid. They bought the game. Would they buy their under 18 kids porn? Of course not.

Depends on if they're bad parents or not.

Mr. Miyamoto spent his whole career creating platform games, so, it's natural feeling this way. I don't judge him for not liking shooters; myself wasn't a big fan of the genre but, since RE 4, I couldn't resist. Of course, I don't buy EVERY SHOOTER in the market because many of them has the same tired formula: the story just make excuses for you to shoot aliens, zombies etc.

we need more rainbows!!!

Indeed not only we have too much shooters, but most of em are unoriginal (Still waiting for Borderlands 2, I admit). But didn't this man said a few weeks ago that he would like to make a FPS?

Way too many shooter games

It is not only an issue of morality, but one of diversity. Excluding sports games, then my guess would be two out of every three console games are shooters. Or at least that is what it seems like.

So he doesn't have a problem with violent sword games? If he does, why pick on guns? I read the article and his main concern was violence in general, but he picked on guns. Being concerned with violent video games that children are exposed to and believing guns are bad are two different things. I'm sure there are plenty of gamers who do not like real life guns and find them inherently immoral. I and many other gamers find them the teeth of a Democracy and a key element of self defense. I get very wary when I hear guns being made a bad guy and it affects my spending habits.

i agree because, sadly, "M" rated games are the ones bought mostly by kids and their parents

i dare anyone to prove me wrong

I'm sorry, I think I missed the point where morality is supposed to decide what games get made. What's funny, is the same arguments have been made about Rap Music(and the gansta groups of the 90's), Television(and the violent cartoons of the 80s), Rock(and the black metal bands of the 70's) and Comic Books(and the increasingly darker titles of the 60's) Mysteriously, the kids who lived through those ages, grew up fine for the most part. But now that we have such graphic, interactive visuals(just as there were graphic images, lyrics and pictures in the past), I guess there's just no saving kids this time......OH GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK!!!!

Do you know what this really sounds like? It sounds like the proponents who wanted video games to be labeled and restricted to adults, are now trying to use the community to promote their beliefs. The only thing more damning, is that Miyamoto himself has said, and I'm quoting him here: “Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.”

FPS's are fine the problem is their all the same, I mean look at fallout 3/NV those are great games and so is borderlands and bioshock problem is most of them are just shallow explosion light shows.

greeneye59. the difference with The Last of Us is that he violence is real, because the people are painted as real beings with desires, fears hopes, will to survive...

every rare bullet is felt as it pierces a person, people who have witnessed a man being stabbed will tell you how it's nothing like you imagine, what movies tell you.

the way that punk at the end Sony conference pleaded for mercy, is unheard of in my book, it made me instantly feel for him, and when that gun went of, it was pure shock and awe.

This is the kind of violence no kid should witness, it's dark and there's little glory or poetry in it.

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As opposed to a Halo experience where you're just gunning down aliens, who cares, it has no weight or emotional impact so it's ok.

Even Uncharted didn't make me feel anything for the countless i mowed down, they were just action-movie cardboard cutouts for all i care and i cant see how these games can make a kid become a psycho.

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That being said i grew up with Super Nintendo and the most violence i remember was Mortal Kombat and I liked it and it's really not that big of a deal, it's make believe goofiness.

"it becomes more difficult for parents to have a full grasp of what's going on."

This is because video games are a young medium, and it probably won't be an issue in 20 years or so. The problem is that a lot of parents and adults obviously don't play video games. Parents don't have the same difficulty with books, music or movies, because parents also read books, listen to music, and watch movies.

A non-gamer has difficulty fully grasping the concept of what a video games is: for example, a couple weeks ago my dad was watching me play GTA IV. At one point he asked me "why is he such a bad driver?"

My dad didn't understand that I was actually in control of the car, that I was doing the steering, etc. He thought that I was simply -watching- Niko drive recklessly around Liberty City. The dynamic nature of a video game, the fact that gameplay isn't just a series of pre-recorded videos, is something that you can't really understand without picking up a controller yourself.

This issue with parents will go away once the serious gamers who are currently in their 20s and 30s become parents themselves, and once the older generations are just as familiar with games as the younger ones. Gamer parents won't have a problem distinguishing between games in different genres, or identifying which series are the most violent, or what the descriptors on the ESRB warning label really mean.

I'm just glad that Miyamoto was a part of this gaming generation.

I will defend Super Mario Galaxy's quality game experience, so I hope Miyamoto is still proud of that.

I don't think too many guns (or emphasis on gun gameplay) can be a bad thing, but that's the opinion of a Serious Sam fan. I'd love to see more melee or melee/gun games. The only good melee combat games I've played are from the Jedi Knight series, as well as Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

Guns, sex, violence sells. Been hearing the stuff since the 80s for TV and movies. It also applies to videogames these days. ( Looks at my library of games that involves guns.) Honestly, Miyamoto's right. Sad but true.

He's right. It seems almost everything is a shooter now. Every game seems to be upping the near-realistic violence for shock value. I find that the older I get the less I like gory displays of death in movies and games. Case in point is The Last of Us. The game looks amazing, but the graphic ways of killing in the game is a real turn off. There's no need for it to go that far. Sometimes I miss the old days of cartoony platforming games.

he should be more worried with the core gamers who made nintendo and are jumping ship as they lose faith in them.

Yes there are too many guns. What we need instead are altenative ways to kill enemies. Such as jumping on them, burning them with fireballs, or dropping bricks on them.