How we you started

“We had been discussing what we can do with a successor to the Wii since 2008. One way to highlight the shape of its successor was how do you make advancements on the Wii, the other way was to highlight the issues of the Wii. We wanted to further motion control, but doing that alone wouldn’t be attractive to the consumer.

It was very fortunate for Wii that a lot of households around the world decided to connect the Wii to the living room TV. On the other hand, we felt something was lost. And that is that the TV in the living room is shared by every member of family, and if someone wanted to play a Wii game for a long time period, other members of the family may find that troublesome. So at the early stages of the discussion between ourselves, we came up with the idea of the additional screen.”

How Nintendo almost gave on up the second screen.
“Sometime during that final discussion we almost gave up on the idea of the additional screen. This was due to our concern over the expected high cost, it may not have been feasible to create this and sell it at a reasonable price point for the consumers.

From that we discussed how we could use that additional screen. Like asymmetric gameplay and using it as a touchscreen device to change how people interact with a TV set. The touchscreen is just one foot away from you, so you can read small letters easier and input letters more easily. And then you have the big TV screen ten feet away, which has its own advantages, in that it can be viewed by many people simultaneously.”

If competition will mimic the Wii U idea.

“It’s quicker than before. After our showing of motion control, it took three years for other companies to follow suit. But this time it’s just one year after our proposal, even before we’ve released the actual product. I think that proves the great potential of what we showed last year.

However, I have to point out that there are essential differences between what we are doing and what other companies are doing. The main difference is that anyone who has a Wii U will be able to enjoy the two screen experience, while the other companies are saying its optional, but only if you have this device or that device.

You might be able to get away with latency for streaming video, but not for video games. They can never realise the same gaming experience on a tablet. They don’t have the same devices that are requisite to play the rich gaming experiences we are talking about. Just imagine that you are playing with the traditional game controller and they are saying that you need an additional screen aswell. Most of us just have two arms, so how are we meant to hold this additional device?”

Why the Wii struggled with 3rd parties. How the Wii U wil be better.
“In terms of graphical capability, there was a sheer difference between the Wii and the other two devices, most notably between SD and HD. We decided to differentiate the Wii not with graphics but with motion control. We believed that motion control was unique and would create more attraction rather than trying to make the Wii HD. On the other hand, we had lost the third-party support when they were focussing on multi-platform titles.

In the case of the Wii U, we have decided to make it so that it is capable of doing whatever the other two consoles can do, so games are easily portable. Even though the other machines are six years old, they have the advantage now because developers are capable of maximising the graphic capabilities, while with the new machine they will have to start from scratch to create the most capable graphics. So the Wii U has that room for improvement.

So in terms of performance, we don’t see any issues for third-parties to be willing to make their software available. As we expand the install-base of the Wii U, I see greater opportunities for the third-parties to be able to provide the Wii U with quality software titles. And as well as the third-party multi-platform titles, we will have publishers making exclusive Wii U titles.”

My impression is that the things that happened with Wii v 360 or Wii v PS3 won’t happen again. If they decide to increase the spec numbers, will the consumers be able to realise the difference enough so that they can understand it’s much superior to today’s machine? And also, if they beef up the processing power, that simply means much more work for software developers to take advantage of those spec numbers. So I have to ask the question if that type of differentiation really makes sense. But I think further arguments must wait until probably next year, when they have finalised and disclosed whatever they are thinking about for the next generation of consoles.”

Iwata talks what everyone else is up too.

“I never think in terms of how we can compete against the other companies, rather our primary focus is to make consumers feel the uniqueness and attractiveness of our products. So any improvements in graphics are just a portion of what we want people to enjoy from Nintendo. More importantly, I want people to say Nintendo are offering unique experiences.”

Talks slow start for the 3DS
“What happened in the last fiscal year was due to the fact the company failed to create enough momentum for the Nintendo 3DS. We learned some grave lessons. But this year, we have already come to the stage where I can say the problem has been fixed. The most important thing for me, is that we should never repeat what happened last year with the 3DS. We haven’t made the announcement yet, but what we have to do is do our best so that we don’t have to mark down the price soon after the launch of the Wii U, like we did with the 3DS.”

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