Satoru Iwata Interview about Wii U; Says 'I think it will become increasingly difficult from now on

[CM30]

The Independant (an English newspaper) has a new interview with Satoru Iwata up about the Wii U and 3DS. And while some of what's said is hardly new, there's still a lot of interesting new information about Nintendo's plans with the Wii U and their other upcoming consoles. So here's a break down of what was said and my thoughts:

Earlier this year Nintendo recorded an operating loss for the first time in its history, what would you say the key reasons were for that and what have you been doing to react?



I think we all know the reasons for this, but given how unusual Nintendo losing money is, every interview from now on is going to ask this. Here's what Iwata's response is:

First of all it’s very unfortunate that we had to record a loss and I feel personally responsible for that. My goal is that this will be the only time we record a loss.

In other words 'I don't like that we lost money and I hope we never do so again'. Self explanatory, although it would be really interesting to see if there's any businessman on Earth who's all like 'yay, I'm losing money! Bankruptcy will be awesome!'

First we were, in terms of the console lifecycle, in a console transition phase, so the fact that sales shrank during this period is actually quite normal.



Basically, the Wii U was their focus so the Wii got less great games and less effort spent on marketing, so sales went down. In retrospect, maybe they should have launched the 3DS a year earlier? That way their unproven new handheld could at least have its initial losses offset by the Wii's top quality games like Super Mario Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns and various others being released and making millions.

The next factor is that when we launched the Nintendo 3DS last year it lost momentum after launch, so we had to take measures and cut the price in order to avoid a failure toward the end of the year, which meant we were selling Nintendo 3DS units at a loss; these two problems we will solve this year.



I think everyone's trying to make this too complicated. Why did the 3DS 'lose momentum'? Because it had few great games at launch and people don't buy consoles for the brand name or technology alone. Face it, Nintendo thought they were Apple and could launch a device to the tech loving hipsters of the world that people would buy either for image or because it had 'cool features'.

Why did it lose momentum after launch? Because at launch, the people obsessed with technology buy consoles and new devices. After launch, Nintendo had to persuade the however many more million/billion of us who buy consoles for games to buy a 3DS, and with only stuff like third party games, Pilotwings, Steel Diver and Nintendogs + cats, people said 'on your bike'.

So Nintendo cut the price. But it wasn't the only thing that made the 3DS sell, it was also the introduction of games like Ocarina of Time 3D, maybe Star Fox 64 3D, Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus Uprising, etc that really got the momentum going. And when people started seeing more of games like Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, Paper Mario, New Super Mario Bros 2, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem Awakening and who knows what else, the console was off!

The third factor, which is actually outside of our range of influence, is that the global economy situation is unstable and the exchange rate is very disadvantageous for us with the Yen being so strong.

There's a recession so the exchange rate is crap and hurts Japanese companies. It also means people are less willing to buy luxury goods like games and game consoles.

Do you feel that extra competition from the likes of Apple, with the iPad and iPhone, have also taken away from the handheld market that Nintendo, and perhaps Sony, have controlled for so long?



This is becoming a cliche now, does everyone really have to ask this?

We’ve seen this in the past, as personal computers became cheaper people were saying ‘we don’t need more home consoles then do we?’ Then, with the advance of mobile phones, people were questioning the need for dedicated gaming machines and now with smartphones again. Under the conditions I mentioned earlier, I think if we can offer exclusive entertainment that cannot be replicated on other devices then we’ll have the chance to survive.


I love this quote because he says something a lot of people missed.

That analysts and journalists were saying the same things about mobile phones and Nintendo when the DS was new. Hell, even when the GBA was out. They didn't kill gaming then, and they probably won't kill it now.

You mentioned you are selling the 3DS at a manufacturing loss following the price cut, will the same be true of the upcoming 3DS XL and Wii U consoles?



First of all to the 3DS XL, we will not be selling this at a loss, we don’t have a huge profit margin on it we intend to sell it a profit. As for Wii U we having even announced price so it’s too early for me to comment.



So the 3DS XL will be sold at a profit. Good news for Nintendo there.

It seems to me that one key area that Nintendo are lagging behind its rivals is online multiplayer. Would you agree that there remains work to do for Nintendo on the online side of things, and would you want key franchise to push online multiplayer?



I agree entirely with the interviewer here. But will Iwata actually answer the question? Well yes, yes he will. Quite bluntly too.

The strength of Nintendo is definitely creating game experiences for people who can play in the same room together and enjoy them together. I think this is the strength we are coming from and if you look at our games and how they’re structured; this is the starting point (for our games).



I see his point, but I think Nintendo needs to stop assuming local multiplayer as the default. Maybe it's easier to use in Japan where people live more close to one another, but in other countries internet/online multiplayer is expected and desperately needed.

But we also have titles like Mario Kart that are heavily reliant on online and support online multiplayer. But you shouldn’t be expecting Call of Duty-like games to be offered from Nintendo. For that type of game my belief is that, if there are companies out there who can do this very well, then instead of us try to do it this, or to compete with them, it would be better to have them do it on our platforms, so to invite them and to support them to offer this kind of entertainment on our platform.


In other words, let Activision and the like come up with their own online systems for Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms. Problem is, they won't. Why? Because it's a waste of time. Third parties don't want to spend time and effort setting up online systems for each game when they could rely on stuff that's already there like Xbox Live. Nintendo needs to get that and just fix up online in general.

He also says something interesting about Kinect:

I personally believe that if there is no physical feedback from the controller then that's, for me, not good. With the Wiimote it has a certain weight, you feel like you have something in your hand, you can press and button and have this haptic feedback or can hear a sound, or it will rumble. With a camera there's no feedback that you can feel physically.

I agree with this, but considering the interviewer also mentioned the outright failed Playstation Move as well, something which does give physical feedback, Iwata missed a trick here.

But he's right about Kinect, it's not that good for games and most people seem to be more interested in it for gimmicks and homebrew systems/technology rather than video games.

Now you're introducing Wii U with its “asymmetric gameplay” element, is that what you're hoping will cause a boom effect this time around?

Good question.

But if we look at videogame history there have been plenty of games where multiple people play together, but I think in almost all of them each player would be performing the same role.

Almost all? There have been lots of games with 'asymmetric' multiplayer. Like Mario Party:




Asymmetric gameplay isn't new. Heck, games like Pac Man Vs did this as well. Oh wait, if you mean two players and different experiences, every game with multiplayer and different character abilities counts. I really doubt it's going to be as 'big' an innovation as motion control was for the Wii simply because while both concepts had been done before, motion control on the Wii was at least significantly better/different than motion controls which came before. And people know exactly how the idea works without much explanation.

On another note, maybe Nintendo should come up with a catchy tag line like:

Multiple people. Same game, different gameplay

Or what not that sums up the concept perfectly.

Nintendo haven't announced Wii U specifications yet but do you consider Wii U to be "next generation" as say the PS4 or next Xbox will be?

This question has also been done to death.





But that's not our approach or what we define as next generation. For next generation we look at the user experience, the gaming experience, how we can improve that, change it, offer new kinds of gameplay. How we can get people to play more often, how we can allow people to connect from one living room to another living room, and this is what we focus on and what, for us, makes a new generation.



I agree with Iwata. But the problem is, will others? Because let's face it, for third party companies and 'hardcore' gamers who play the overblown third party games and shooters and what not, generations are purely a 'power' thing. The Wii was more modern/technical than the 360 and PS3 according to Iwata's definition above, but for your average internet fanboy or hardcore gamer they still thought of the competition as the 'next generation' consoles. Nintendo doesn't seem to get this. It's not right, but they'll need to do well on power if they want to win back the self proclaimed 'hardcore'.

Who's their real audience? The general public or the 'hardcore'? Both want different things, and I don't think the Wii U will ever please them both.

I think some of these projects have already been announced at E3, but there are other games in the works that haven’t been announced yet and in the autumn, when we announce price point and timing of the launch, we will also be able to announce some more third-party titles.

More third party titles to be announced soon. Sounds good.

As for the point mentioned in the interview title;

There’s definitely the chance for not only graphics, but also other features that our competitor’s consoles don’t have. But I think it will become increasingly difficult from now on to compete over graphics. This is because that no matter how much we increase the number of polygons we can display and improve the shading it will become increasingly difficult to tell the difference.



Correct. Practically speaking, your average Joe can't read tell much of a difference between the likes of this gen's graphics and the last gen's, at least for most games. And it will become a problem for the next few generations since we're approaching 'realistic' graphics, something which will always look samey.

We’re not going to deliver a system that has so much horsepower that no matter what you put on there it will run beautifully, and also, because we’re selling the system with the GamePad – which adds extra cost to the package – we don’t want to inflate the cost of each unit by putting in excessive CPU power

Also known as 'where Sony' messed up.

Later this month the 3DS XL handheld launches in Europe. When you were designing the XL were you tempted to put in a second analogue stick as standard?



*Gets a drink*

This could be interesting.

The choice, if we were going to include the second analogue stick, was to reduce the size of the batters or make the unit much bigger.



Batters? So apparently the device would either have to be much bigger or have less batteries for a second analogue stick. Kind of glad they didn't trade away yet more battery life just to please a few internet nerds.

Attaching a second analogue stick is possible but it would have made the system even bigger and, though it perhaps puts a burden on people that really want that second stick, it’s a call we had to make and these people will have to live with it.



Basically, he says deal with it.

As for 3D, that's the next topic. The interviewer said:

Is 3D on a handheld console something you’re happy to explore once, but then might not return to, or would you continue to pursue it going forward?

It's an interesting point, and part of me suspects when/if Iwata leaves the whole 3D thing will probably be chucked out the window to appeal to the mainstream.

But I think it’s an important element, it makes graphics more impactful, it proves a sense of immersion that 2D doesn’t have, so I would say generally that 3D is better than 2D. It’s nice to have good graphics but not necessarily on their own, so I don’t think we’ll present [3D graphics] as one of the key features of our consoles but will probably stick with 3D as one of the minor elements of our consoles in the future.


So in future, it'll be a common feature of Nintendo consoles, but merely a minor one rather than the selling point of the console.

From my point of view, we’re not looking to digital distribution as a means to skip someone [high street retailers] and therefore increase our margin. I think it’s more that with traditional packaged products we need to produce them, ship them, there’s the stock keeping loss risk, and loss associated with products being sold out or you can have certain items overstocked.



I think for a lot of consumers it’s still important that they can go to a store and in-store they have a presence of our products and this is where they can be informed and then purchase our products. For us it’s still quite important to have the traditional retailers as our partners and to see how we can work together with them and involve them in the distribution model – and also for digital products.


So Nintendo isn't going digital distribution only. Thank God.

But what do you think of this article? Is Iwata right about what he says? Is Nintendo's business strategy working for them?

http://www.independe...cs-7936301.html

 

[KirbyZ]

I have to halt in the beggining for a brief moment, there are sections there that have Iwata speaking but then it kinda seems that it switch to an analist. But since there is no "quotes" it all blends togheter, making it seems like is all Iwata's speech and feels kinda weird reading it that way. Could you fix this?

That or he is really being all sarcastic and sprinkling jokes all over it.

 

[CM30]

^Oh whoops, I forgot to add some more quote tags.

 

[Ungravitify]

I just found this article and was going to make a topic good thing I checked the here first XD anyway im glad iwata did this interview and he was honest enough to give his resons and beliefs over all of these subjects espeacially the second circle pad hopefully anyone he was begging for one will see this and shut up the second circle pad is never mandatory and probobly wont be in the future.