On Wii’s Successor

Iwata was asked for his stance on the release of a Wii successor. He gave his usual response — that Nintendo is always developing new game hardware. “As soon as a new system is complete — from the very moment it is complete — we’re thinking about the plan for the next game machine,” he said. “We believe there’s still more we can do with the Wii,” he added, stating that as a result he has nothing to show for the next console.

On Social Gaming

Have some of Nintendo’s casual users moved to social games? And under the consideration that making these people use a specific console or handheld in the cloud computing era is behind the times, has Nintendo considered releasing firmware or OS for other platforms?

Iwata responded that while Nintendo doesn’t necessarily feel that the current game machine model will last forever, they also feel that for the time being, the notion of game hardware will not become antiquated and go away. “If you ask why we make game consoles, it’s because we believe that ‘offering experiences that cannot be done on other devices’ is our life line. With that meaning, offering software for a multi purpose multimedia device is, for us, an area of work that we have least interest in.” And driving the point across further, he said, “If we were to stop and do nothing, the current game system framework would probably become antiquated, but because we continue to offer new things, we don’t feel at all that this will happen. We’ve not once thought things like ‘we’ll be behind the times, so we should enter social games.'”

On Taking the 3D out of 3DS

Some mainstream papers reported on this (even my local Mercury News!). In response to a question about the 3DS having an effect on kids, Iwata revealed that the 3D feature of the 3DS can be turned off.

Said Iwata, “This isn’t limited to just kids, but we’re aware one in some tens of people, including adults, have difficulty with three dimensional visuals. So, while the 3D image is a special feature of the 3DS, we won’t force the player to use the 3D functionality. By making it so that the player can at all times play with [the 3D feature] off, we believe we can comply with those who have difficulty with the 3D view or those who are worried about their childs’ eyes.

Make sure you check out the rest Iwata’s statements.

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