Merrily waving his Wii controller about, Miyamoto strongly emphasized the idea of designing with the audience in mind. "We as game designers often repeat the same mistake, and that's because we're too familiar. We know too much about the games that we are creating," he said. After displaying a list of the top five games of 1998 along with those of 2004, he noted that only one game in 1998 contained violent content, as compared to all five in the latter year. "Instead of asking me questions about games themselves, [the media] always wanted to ask me about the perceived effect games were having on people," he explained. "Even as the sales went up, the reputation of the games industry went down." He remarked that this was a major factor in the direction that Nintendo took with the Wii. "We were at a crossroads," he said.

The idea of expanding the gaming audience will be familiar to Nintendo followers. For Miyamoto, one approach toward this goal is to simply observe the visual response that his games elicit from players. "I envision the face of the player. What players feel is reflected on their face. As an entertainer, I want people to look entertained," he said, as pictures of ecstatic Wii players appeared on screen. Later he would connect this idea to the Mii concept, which began with a simple facial design program that he had pitched to Nintendo in his early days with the company. "There weren't many people who agreed with me. They said, 'How could this be a game?'"

According to Miyamoto, the problem all along was that the character project had seemed like less of a game, and more of a utility. "Once we started to consider the program as something for the widest possible audience, all the problems were solved," he said. After further iterations of the character design concept failed to come to fruition, Miyamoto recounted a conversation he had with Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata. "Mr. Iwata approached me with a little smirk on his face, and he asked me, 'We still playing around with that face creation idea?' I said, 'Well, yes, but we haven't turned it into anything yet.' He then informed me that a DS team was making progress on the same idea. I went back to my team and I said, 'You guys are useless.' So I told them I didn't need them anymore and worked with this other team for a while," he said, jokingly wondering if that may be an explanation of problems within his team.

Many of Miyamoto's stories focused on various aspects of his private life. Perhaps the most culturally binding moment came when he introduced his concept of the "Wife-o-Meter," a graphical representation of his wife's interest in video games. With a wry grin, he outlined his wife's life-long disinterest in gaming, mentioning how even titles like Tetris failed to fully captivate her. Slowly the "Wife-o-meter" increased as he rifled through games such as Ocarina of Time and Animal Crossing, until finally pausing on the recent popular DS title, Brain Age. "Thanks to this game, she has now accepted videogames as part of her daily life," he said. After describing the phenomenon of coming home to find his wife playing games, he explained with a laugh, "It would be more normal to come home find Donkey Kong eating at my dinner table. Now, my wife comes to me, and she tells me, 'I can beat you at any time.' She's bragging. To me!"

In a speech largely devoid of announcements--in stark contrast to Sony executive Phil Harrison's speech of yesterday--Miyamoto did sneak in news of one Wii feature that is currently under development. "We are working on a new Wii channel, which is going to allow people to compare the Miis that they've created, hold popularity contests, and you'll be able to do this with people all around the world," he said.

Miyamoto was sure to note that though he has always pursued an approach of creating positive feelings and avoiding overt violence in his game, he does not believe that any one such approach is more correct than another. He pointed to emotions such as fear, suspense, and violence as elements that can be crucial in the games of others. "My main message to you today is that creative vision is not one element of game design," he said. "It is the essence of game design. But my vision does not have to be your vision. I am only one person. The future of our industry depends on how successful you will be in applying your vision to your video games. After seeing all the independent games nominated at the award show last night, I don't think I need to tell you this. You've given me a lot of faith in the success of our industry."

Following a short trailer for Super Mario Galaxy, he concluded by expressing his optimism on the current state of the gaming industry. "It is not enough to just please those of us who already love video games. We must reach out to those who don't care about this kind of entetainment, and even those who fear it," stressed Miyamoto. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to bring them into the world of video games too?

"We are humans, and our job is to entertain humans, and to do that we must always remember the human touch. With our tools, and our creative vision, and with the courage of our convictions, I know that we can do it. After all, if we can convert my wife, I believe we can convert anyone."