First, could I ask you to briefly introduce yourselves?
Takayuki Shimamura (referred to as Shimamura from this point on):
I’m Takayuki Shimamura, a producer for Nintendo Switch Sports. I served as a director for Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Sports Club. This was the first title in the series I joined as a producer.
Yoshikazu Yamashita (referred to as Yamashita from this point on):
I’m Yoshikazu Yamashita, the director for this title. I was also the director for Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort.
Shinji Okane (referred to as Okane from this point on):
I’m Shinji Okane. I was the program director for this title. I was also involved in Ring Fit Adventure as a program director and Jump Rope Challenge as a director. I’ve been working on a lot of physical activity titles.
Junji Morii (referred to as Morii from this point on):
I’m Junji Morii. I joined this title as the art director. I was also an art director for Wii Sports. Some of the other titles I worked on are Nintendo Land and 1-2-Switch. I have worked with Shimamura-san and Yamashita-san for a long time.
Natsuko Yokoyama (referred to as Yokoyama from this point on):
I’m Natsuko Yokoyama. I was the sound director for this title. Before this game, I was in charge of sound effects (1) for Ring Fit Adventure, and like Okane-san, I have also been successively working on physical activity titles.
Thank you very much. Mr Yamashita, could you kick us off with a quick introduction to Nintendo Switch Sports?
Yamashita:
Of course. Nintendo Switch Sports is a sequel to the motion-based series of games that began with Wii Sports, released exclusively for Wii in 2006.
In addition to Tennis, Bowling and Chambara, which were popular in previous titles, this new title includes Volleyball, Badminton and Football. There will be an update in the autumn with Golf added as an additional sport.
When did work start for this title? Did the development start with the assumption that it would be a sequel to the Wii Sports series?
Yamashita:
The project started a while after Nintendo Switch was released. Mr Koizumi (2) called me and requested the development of a Nintendo Switch title in the Wii Sports series. And that’s how the project started.
So, it started quite a while ago.
Yamashita:
Since it launched in 2022, one may wonder why it took so long.
You have been working on it since you received the request from Koizumi-san, haven’t you?
Yamashita:
Yes. With Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, we came up with as many ideas as we could think of…and most of them were achieved and implemented in the titles, so we felt that we had done all we could.
My impression at the time was that if we were to do a sequel in the future, it would be quite difficult. Therefore, when this Nintendo Switch Sports project started, I honestly felt that there weren’t any sports left to be added.
So, your starting point was, “There is nothing left to do”, and you considered creative ways to add new things?
Yamashita:
Yes. “There may not be so many new sports and types of gameplay anymore. But that’s not good enough…”, and so on. I thought about a lot of things for a while and worked hard on my own.
New members joined, and in the process of prototyping, we were conscious of creating something that looked new and different from the past. But we were so conscious of this, that we ended up going as far as having gameplay where you can play without swinging the Joy-Con controller. (laughs)
Without swinging the Joy-Con controller…? The plan was to develop a Nintendo Switch title in the Wii Sports series, right?
Yamashita:
That’s right. We started off with Wii Sports but got so caught up in making it look new, the swinging motion controls became a secondary consideration, and other aspects of the game, like the games’s atmosphere, became a higher priority for us to put our efforts into.
But we were working so hard at the time that we didn’t really question it. We were very conscious of creating something new no matter what… However, it didn’t go well in the end. We had lost our way and were on the verge of losing the charm of Wii Sports. And by the time we acknowledged we’d pursued the wrong direction, years had already passed.
I understand that quite some time had passed since the start of the project. How did you pivot from there after you realised it was going in the wrong direction?
Shimamura:
When you actually played the prototype from then, the operations were complex, and the swinging motion controls ended up on the back burner. I felt that, if we proceeded in this direction, it was not going to be something you can just pick up and say “let’s play it together” when you have someone over at your house.
What was essential in the Wii Sports series was that it is easy for everyone to play, even if it was their first time, and I thought that was missing from the prototypes we were making at the time.
So, I felt really bad for all the staff who had been working on the game up to the halfway point, but I told them that our goal should be to create “the world’s most easy-to-invite to motion-based game”.
Nintendo has a lot of other games that are deep and interesting, but even considering the differentiation from those games, I thought our mission was to create a product for 5- to 95-year olds, that is highly approachable. And so, we made a fresh start.
