Iwata talks Tablets …

“Regarding the format you referred to as ‘tablet’ which has a certain big screen and allows users to directly touch it, when we look at it from the viewpoint of ‘developing software which uses a touch screen,’ I think it is an interesting device if it creates an experience that is in line with the trend created by Nintendo DS. On the other hand, we have never abandoned the + Control Pad and buttons for our game systems because we think these functions are advantageous when creating highly reactive games. In this meaning, I do not think Nintendo hardware will take on any of the current tablet forms as they are without buttons, to make our game devices. However, this is only when we consider tablets as game devices and, for other purposes, I think tablets are very interesting, and they are a form of hardware that will continue to grow.” – Satoru Iwata

Iwata: Kinect no serious impact on Wii sales.

“I think the image of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is largely different between Japanese citizens and U.S. citizens. I think I can say that the Xbox 360 business has been in a good condition since last summer. On the other hand, when we talk about whether Kinect contributed to significantly expanding the number of Xbox users, as I have previously shown you the data on the graph, the number of Wii users has grown to about 10 million, but the growth in the number of Microsoft users is much smaller. Therefore, we feel that it would be rather unusual if Nintendo’s Wii market was taken over by the launch of Kinect, or if the users who were playing with Wii quit playing with it and started to play with other consoles. Of course, many users in the U.S. have multiple consoles at their homes. Many Wii users also have Xbox 360 and vice versa, so I am not saying that there is completely no effect in terms of use rate. However, hit titles are not being released continually every month for Kinect software, so we don’t believe Wii sales are being seriously affected.”