Miyamoto Says No to a Digital Distribution Future

While Sony and Microsoft are waiting for gamers to catch up to their visions of a digital distribution future, Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto is sticking to the tried and true.

For Sony and Microsoft, a world in which all games are sold digitally doesn’t seem to be much of a matter of if but when (and when is whenever gamers start to catch onto the idea). Nintendo’s resident legendary game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, however, doesn’t ever see games, or entertainment altogether, ever completely abandoning the realm of real, physical products.

Not that Miyamoto doesn’t see the advantages of digital distribution. “So if you look at digital distribution with the fact that you don’t need money for packaging and things like that, it’s great,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. There are some things, however, that you’ll never be able to accomplish if you abandon selling through retail, Miyamoto thinks.

“Entertainment is something that will not just become digital,” he said. “If I look at Wii MotionPlus, this is something that you’re not doing via digital distribution.”

Well obviously you’ll never be able to distribute peripherals through bits and bytes. What about games specifically? Miyamoto just doesn’t see it working. “The thing for us is we really don’t see the future of video games being merely confined to digital distribution or moving solely or even to a majority of our products being distributed that way,” he explained.

Miyamoto, it seems, has an admitted affection for the old world, where you bought things and not just computer files. “Personally, I’m one of those guys who, even if I have all the songs from iTunes, I want the CD as well,” he said. “It’s something that makes me – I feel more reassured with that physical media.”