This SMH article talks about Shigeru Miyamoto who designed Mario, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda and other games for Nintendo. The article says that Nintendo has sold over 300 million copies of Miyamoto's games worth billions of dollars. Miyamoto says: "For me the question is not so much about looking realistic but creating games that when people play them, it feels real to them."
W: http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/28/1090694015937.html