Realism Isn't About Graphics, Says Nintendo Exec

thegamer.com:

More than ever, publishers and console makers love to stress how incredibly detailed their games are, with cutting-edge graphics that are driving video game budgets to almost unsustainable levels. Almost every big publisher out there is keen to show off just how realistic and perfect their games look, but one of very few to buck that trend is Nintendo, which regularly pumps out brilliant games despite the limitations of the Switch's hardware.

It helps that Nintendo's biggest properties - like Mario, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda - have never attempted to become super realistic, but there are certain people at Nintendo that think realism isn't just about making your game look as close to real life as possible. Speaking during a Super Mario Bros. Wonder panel at GDC 2024, which TheGamer attended, Nintendo executive officer Takashi Tezuka explained that realism is much more than simply making your games look realistic.

Instead of focusing on graphics, Tezuka explains that Nintendo puts a lot more effort into making characters like Mario react to the world around them to improve a game's realism. Graphics are still important, of course, but making characters feel pain, showing their emotions and expressions, and the sounds that they create through interacting with the world are a few of the things Nintendo focuses on to make games more immersive, and that is specifically how they add realism to Mario as the years go by.

I don't think we should seek a sense of accomplishment based solely on the realness of the game.

It's definitely a sensible approach to development, as games need relatable characters and interesting worlds for us to be truly immersed in them. PlayStation or Xbox could announce the best looking game we've ever seen tomorrow, but if it doesn't have the things that Tezuka mentions above, it's going to be bland and distracting, pulling you out of the experience and ruining your immersion. Starfield found that out the hard way.

Later on in the panel, the