Iwata Asks - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

A really fascinating Iwata Asks that was never translated by NOA. The ostensible reason for it not being translated is that the interview was conducted for the Japanese launch of Metroid, hence too late to help its US sales, but I think the gender politics of the interview also played a role in its being shelved. It’s interesting to see how Nintendo is nurturing young female game designers in order to broaden the appeal of its products, even if that effort can come off as patronizing at times.

Here’s Iwata to Risa Tabata, female designer:

Iwata: I remember being really surprised when I saw you demoing the game for us. You looked really splendid defeating enemies one after another with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Would he say that to a dude? Probably not.

Another interesting exchange:

Iwata: If I recall correctly, you were originally hired to do office work and were quite surprised when you were assigned to the game development section instead.

Tabata: I was surprised. In college, my major was Chinese. Because I was originally a humanities student, I believed that even if I was hired by Nintendo, it was 100% certain that it would only be for office work. Nevertheless, when they announced, “Tabata-san will be assigned to Entertainment Analysis & Development,” I remember feeling extremely confused, wondering, “What kind of post is that exactly?” That was because I had only prepared myself for the possibility of office work, and therefore hadn’t really listened to their explanation about EAD during the orientation for new company employees. (Laughs)

Iwata: You weren’t the type to be totally addicted to games to begin with, and you didn’t join the company hoping to make games yourself, either. Of all things, you were assigned to work on the Metroid Prime series. And now, after entering the company, you’ve been involved with this strand of software for more than seven years. This seems like quite the quirk of fate. Life can be quite interesting, don’t you agree?

So, she thought she’d be an OL, but instead she helped make Metroid? Interesting…