Granted, this MAY be a mistranslation, but I have to wonder if Shigeru Miyamoto even knows why he may be going massively downhill for some, to the point of going on other gamers' s***list (Sean Malstrom surely has it in for him right now).
In the past, he's been pissing off a few of his own fans in regards to the F-Zero and Star Fox franchises, the former in regards to having no clue what th F-Zero fandom wants and his resistance to making a new game in the series after the failures of F-Zero GX and the GBA games after that, to the point of regretting developing one of them. As for Star Fox, he threatens to kill off the franchise if the remake of a remake, 64 3D (which in Europe, isn't called Lylat Wars 3D for some reason) doesn't sell as well (it bombed in Japan, but it did decently in America, not sure about Europe).
Now he makes a statement in regards to Japanese gamers not wanting hard games...
Ive been making action games for some 30 years, and Ive been thinking about the difference evident in how their popularity has been gradually declining in Japan whilst in America it has been maintained.
The issue is that Japanese who cannot overcome the level of difficulty in an action game no longer want to play them. This perception then spreads to all games as a whole, and people avoid them because they see them as difficult.
In the case of America, there are a lot more people who enjoy a challenge and will stick with it for you and try to overcome the initial hurdle.
Yes, its action games which really demand a certain level of skill.
Right, some players just enjoy playing, some prefer to finish it, and some prefer greater challenge. People looking for a challenge will dismiss an easily cleared game as easy.
But by making things too difficult, the people who just want to play get driven off. I always wanted to accommodate both types.
Miyamoto
...wow. It's one thing to piss off a lower part of your own fandom, it's a whole nother to probably (and likely) piss off quite a few gamers in your own native soil.
Shigeru, as said in the title, I still like your stuff, but you need to shut it sometimes.