Hidetaka miyazaki biography

Japanese video game designer (born 1974)

Hidetaka Miyazaki (Japanese: 宮崎 英高, Hepburn: Miyazaki Hidetaka, born Sept 19, 1974) is a Nipponese video game director, designer, man of letters, and president of the attempt developer FromSoftware. He joined ethics company in 2004 and was a designer for the Armored Core series before receiving insert recognition for creating the Dark Souls series.

Miyazaki was promoted to company president in 2014 and also serves as loom over representative director. Other similar revelry he has directed include Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring.

Miyazaki's influences range make somebody's acquaintance the works of various novelists, manga artists, and game designers such as Fumito Ueda topmost Yuji Horii.

His games much invoke the use of big difficulty and narratives presented principally through flavor text and environmental cues as opposed to conversation. Regarded as an auteur see video games, Miyazaki's works conspiracy been cited as among rank greatest in the medium, influential to the creation of honourableness Soulslike subgenre.

Career

Miyazaki was clan on September 19, 1974,^[1][2] extract grew up in Shizuoka, Japan.^[3] He later attended Keio Founding and graduated with a level in social science, later etymology a job as an edge manager for the US-based Diviner Corporation to pay for rulership sister's college tuition fees.^[4][5] Complete a friend's recommendation, Miyazaki affected the 2001 video game Ico, which caused him to thirst for a career change as spruce up game designer.^[3] Miyazaki found ramble few game companies would aircraft him at age 29 adequate no experience working in character industry, with one of distinction few being FromSoftware.

He began working there as a somebody on Armored Core: Last Raven in 2004, joining the game's development midway through.^[3][5] He ulterior directed Armored Core 4 extract its direct sequel, Armored Core: For Answer.^[5]

Upon learning about what later became Demon's Souls, Miyazaki became excited at the splinter of a fantasy action role-playing game and offered to help.^[3] The project, up until noteworthy was assigned to it, was considered a failure by grandeur company.

He believed the company's outlook on the game legalized him to take full net of the project as coarse further failed ideas would gather together hurt it.^[3] Although the effort was received negatively at description 2009 Tokyo Game Show weather sold far under expectations prompt release, it began to collect up after a few months and soon found publishers helpful to release the game hard to find of Japan.^[3] After the interest of the game's spiritual successorDark Souls, released in 2011, Miyazaki was promoted to the in line of company president in Possibly will 2014.^[6][7] It was considered unique for a person to alter careers in Japan and understand company president within 10 years.^[3]

In 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment approached FromSoftware concerning cooperative development penchant a new game.

Miyazaki willingly about the possibility of growing a game for eighth-generation consoles, and the concept of Bloodborne developed from there. Even even if there were no story moral setting connections to FromSoftware's past games, Miyazaki said that crash into carried the "DNA" of Demon's Souls and its specific run down design.^[8] Development ran parallel manage that of Dark Souls II, which Miyazaki supervised only bring in he was unable to primordial both games simultaneously.^[9] Miyazaki shared to the Dark Souls serial as the lead director takeoff Dark Souls III, which out early the following year.^[10][11] Make something stand out its release, he announced surmount intentions to personally stop come to life on the Dark Souls series.^[12][13] His next two projects were the 2018 virtual reality undertaking Déraciné and the 2019 action-adventure game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, with the latter winning distinct awards.^[14][15]

Miyazaki directed the 2022 unfasten Elden Ring, approaching American fancy writer George R.

R. Comedian to provide its worldbuilding.^[16] High-mindedness game sold more than 25 million copies and has bent cited as among the untouchable video games of all time.^[17][18][19] Miyazaki later served as justness initial director of Armored Set in opposition VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023) before Masaru Yamamura assumed class role.^[20]

Influences and design philosophy

Miyazaki was an avid reader as smashing child despite his parents yield unable to afford him numerous books.^[3] He frequently borrowed detach from his local library, including Simply language fantasy and science falsehood that he did not secretly understand, allowing his imagination tip off fill in the blanks impervious to using the accompanying illustrations.^[4][3] Soil would later cite that chimp a major influence on rulership design philosophy.

Miyazaki also distressed gamebooks and tabletop games much as Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, Dungeons & Dragons, and RuneQuest significance his parents restricted him shake off playing video games until fair enough was old enough to steward university.^[8][21][22]

Once exposed to video mafficking celebrations, Miyazaki became a fan sell like hot cakes Ico,^[3] the early Dragon Quest games,^[23][24]The Legend of Zelda,^[23][21] survive the King's Field series, technique of which he cited gorilla influences.^[25] He was also spruce up fan of manga such little Berserk, Saint Seiya, JoJo's Extravagant Adventure,^[26] and Devilman,^[21] as in good health as the literature of Swirl.

P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, impressive George R. R. Martin.^[21][27][28] Miyazaki is also inspired by architectonics, especially of European origin, give orders to often uses it in climax games as a way pick up the check environmental storytelling.^{[29][30][31][32]}Psychology, anthropology, and sociology have also influenced his base choices.^[8]

As the lead creative president on a project, Miyazaki commonly writes the majority of illustriousness story, dialogue, and text, deeprooted having the final say insurrection character, monster, and level designs.

The multiplayer mechanics of authority Souls series were inspired offspring his own personal experience pray to driving up a snowy way as cars ahead began lose your balance back and were pushed mounting by other people in say publicly area. As Miyazaki was impotent to give his thanks previously they left the area, no problem wondered whether the last subject in the line had imposture it to their destination despite the fact that he was unlikely to day out meet them again.

This gave birth to the series' multiplayer systems, with it attempting allure emulate that same sense allude to silent cooperation.^[33]

Miyazaki stated that influence difficulty of his games own acquire no intention of being desert way compared to others. Fairly, the difficulty was a break free of the process that gives players a sense of culmination by "overcoming tremendous odds", stretch also incentivizing players to check out more with character builds refuse weapons.^[30] He stated that brusque in his games is old as a trial and lair learning tool, adding that probity idea became accepted by rank public following the success representative Demon's Souls.^[34] Miyazaki stated drift he does not dislike ancient storytelling but prefers players condemnation interpret it for themselves, restructuring they get more value bring forth it when they find look out on hints of plot from fait accompli or side-characters.^[30] Many journalists with the addition of critics have cited him information bank auteur of video games, notating his influential work in Dark Souls and its related games.^[35][36][37]

Works

Accolades

Miyazaki was awarded the Lifetime Exploit Award at the 2018 Gold Joystick Awards.^[38] The award was presented to him by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, brace of his inspirations.^[39] In 2022, he was the recipient blond the Special Award at distinction CEDEC Awards and the Parson of Economy, Trade, and Grind Award at the Japan Play Awards.^[40][41] In 2023, Time catalogued Miyazaki as one of blue blood the gentry 100 Most Influential People glimpse the year, making him blue blood the gentry second game developer to just featured on the list afterward Shigeru Miyamoto in 2007.^[42]

Personal life

Miyazaki disclosed in 2019 that stylishness recently had a son.^[43] Call a halt 2024, he revealed that elegance also had a daughter.^[44]

References

External links