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Kanye West reportedly pitched a game to Shigeru Miyamoto: ‘He couldn’t believe it’

Bullet Club

Member

Kanye West reportedly pitched a game to Shigeru Miyamoto: ‘He couldn’t believe it’​


Mario’s creator is said to have called the prototype “very moving”

Kanye West reportedly pitched an unreleased game about his mother ascending to heaven directly to Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto at E3 2015.

The rapper and fashion designer would go on to publicly announce the game, ‘Only One’, during an event in New York in February 2016.

The game’s title was the same as the 2014 song West wrote about his daughter North, told from the perspective of his late mother, Donda West.

“I’m working on on a video game and I wanted to show y’all,” West said when he announced the game. “The idea of the game is my mom travelling through the gates of heaven.”




Prior to the game’s public reveal, it’s claimed West attempted to persuade Nintendo to take on the project by speaking to Miyamoto himself

Former IGN employee and current Twitch lead community producer Zachary Ryan claimed on Friday that in early 2016, he travelled to New York to interview Miyamoto for Star Fox Zero.

When West’s name came up during a conversation Ryan was having with a Nintendo representative about the rapper’s new album, Miyamoto reportedly overheard and began recounting an anecdote about the previous E3 via his translator.

“He said that Kanye had shown up at the Nintendo booth unannounced and asked for an audience with Miyamoto specifically, right then and there,” Ryan tweeted.

“He went on to say that Kanye showed him the prototype for a video game. In it, you played as Kanye’s late mother flying to heaven, set to a soundtrack conducted by Kanye himself.”

He added: “He was shaking his head as he described it, not like he thought it was a bad game… but more so in the way that he just sorta couldn’t believe that Kanye West was pitching him a video game.”




After describing the look of the game and how it played, Miyamoto reportedly said he was moved by the pitch.

“At the end of the story, he nodded and said ‘it was very interesting’. There was a long pause and he added ‘it was very moving’,” Ryan recalled.

“Then he laughed REALLY hard and said ‘Kanye West wanted to make a game with Nintendo’ and then, in English, ‘Wow!’ and gave me two thumbs up.”

Ryan added: “I fucking lost it. I laughed so hard. What an absurd turn of events. Not only that it happened but that the story was relayed to me in this VERY SPECIFIC way.”

The Twitch employee said West announced Only One some two weeks after his interview with Miyamoto.

Source: VGC
 

ManaByte

Member
“Then he laughed REALLY hard and said ‘Kanye West wanted to make a game with Nintendo’ and then, in English, ‘Wow!’ and gave me two thumbs up.”
Wait For It Kanye GIF
 

BeardGawd

Banned
If you'd believe anything you hear from Kanye, I've got some ocean front property in Colorado, you'll love.
There's a literal quote of him pitching it to Miyamoto. Dude has almost done it all from an artists/creators perspective. Wtf are you on?
 

DonJorginho

Banned
We really need to have a society-wide discussion about what to do with Kanye.
Cherish him whilst you can, whether you see his antics as delusion or genius, there's no denying there haven't been many figures in culture as free spoken or daring as him. He isn't everyone's cup of tea but there are things he's done that will never be forgotten for people, be it his innovations in music production, his trends created in fashion, his amazing discography or his many memeable moments, there's something that will make you not forget Kanye West.

In an age where every celebrity or creative artist is nothing but a bland PR machine, it's great to have actual people being themselves, even when it's not to everyone's liking.

Kanye West GIF by TIME
 
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kraspkibble

Permabanned.
can't stand the guy and would usually hate on him but i think it's cool and beautiful that it's about his mum. would be awesome if someone made it happen.
 

Markio128

Member
Cherish him whilst you can, whether you see his antics as delusion or genius, there's no denying there haven't been many figures in culture as free spoken or daring as him. He isn't everyone's cup of tea but there are things he's done that will never be forgotten for people, be it his innovations in music production, his trends created in fashion, his amazing discography or his many memeable moments, there's something that will make you not forget Kanye West.

In an age where every celebrity or creative artist is nothing but a bland PR machine, it's great to have actual people being themselves, even when it's not to everyone's liking.

Kanye West GIF by TIME
I’ll give him one thing, he is incredibly engaging.
 

Sleepwalker

Gold Member
Cherish him whilst you can, whether you see his antics as delusion or genius, there's no denying there haven't been many figures in culture as free spoken or daring as him. He isn't everyone's cup of tea but there are things he's done that will never be forgotten for people, be it his innovations in music production, his trends created in fashion, his amazing discography or his many memeable moments, there's something that will make you not forget Kanye West.

In an age where every celebrity or creative artist is nothing but a bland PR machine, it's great to have actual people being themselves, even when it's not to everyone's liking.

Kanye West GIF by TIME

Literally only know Kanye because people mention him on the internet and that taylor swift meme from years ago but I couldn't mention one of his songs, or fashion trends or anything that he's done lol. 🤷‍♂️
 
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CamHostage

Member
I don't personally have much to say positive or negative about Kanye (well, other than "talent" and "meds",) but on the general topic here...

As a gamer, I generally believe that games should not set out to be about anything other than how they play. Every game pitch should be about the game. Yes, franchise involvement or some inspirational source of concept art/visualization or maybe an influential setting or time period can be involved in the driving force of getting a team together and forming the vision of the product. It is a business and the product must have the right hooks to sell, granted. And yes, sometimes a talented game director has inspiration for a melding of gameplay and emotional or personal or sociological concerns where both the idea and the implementation influence each other. But for me, every game pitch should start with something like this:
  • "This game is about a grappling hook..."
  • "This game is about car combat..."
  • "This game is about running fast..."
  • "This game is about jumping in slow-mo with two guns in your hands...
  • "This game is about jumping on turtles and mushroom people..."
 
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The Journey devs should get with Kanye and make this a Journey type indie game. With his fans and soundtrack behind it, I'm sure it would sell pretty well.
 
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