During a promotional trip to Europe for Nintendo's upcoming music title, Wii Music, a local UK broadcast station caught up with the enigmatic Nintendo creative head to talk about Wii Music, violence in games and gaming's place within the current economic slump.

"We need to eat in order to live, that's our first priority," Miyamoto responds when asked how he thinks the slump will affect the gaming industry. "But entertainment and the enrichment of our souls must come in second place."

Hrm, easy for him to say. Japan is probably the most stable place to be right now. You can check out the rest of the video report right here.

That interview really had no substance to it. I thought the reporter would ask about upcoming games like the new zelda game. Nope he asked about the economy.

If reporters had brains they'd be making the news, not reporting on it.

Hell, sometimes I prioritise games even above food, so having them in second place isn't too bad :P

Hrm, easy for him to say. Japan is probably the most stable place to be right now.

False - for example, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ae7xq7u9nHr0&refer=japan . Japan is likely to be in recession.

even in a recession they're prol still in better posi than most of the rest of the world. I've seen people line up outside krispy kream in japan after 10pm for ages, just for a KK doughnut :P

"We need to eat in order to live, that's our first priority," Miyamoto responds when asked how he thinks the slump will affect the gaming industry. "But entertainment and the enrichment of our souls must come in second place."

hah. personally i'd put things like clean water, shelter, transport, communications, electricity, clothing, health care & 100's of other things before entertainment in financial priorities. this guy is fooling himself if he thinks anyone would rate entertainment so highly in thier priorities.

Hell, sometimes I prioritise games even above food, so having them in second place isn't too bad :P

cant see that this would happen too often . .. .

i was waiting for a fat joke.

Disappointed it took so long, you must be slipping

i would have been banned for a week if it came out of me.

As if Khel actually bans people anymore.

hah. personally i'd put things like clean water, shelter, transport, communications, electricity, clothing, health care & 100's of other things before entertainment in financial priorities. this guy is fooling himself if he thinks anyone would rate entertainment so highly in thier priorities.

You'd think that but I was listening to the Js the other day and they said something like the only industry that did really well in the Great Depression in the US was the movie industry - a quick Google yields sites like this which have some infoz about why that was the case.

they didnt have bittorrent in the depression though :D & i imagine that there was a greater severity of life with little options when it came to escapism.

i still doubt anyone is gonna shell out for a nintendo wii rather than have water, shelter & all the things that make playing a nintendo wii possible.