Iwata Interview
Image from money.cnn.com
NeoGAF user Mandoric translated an interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. As usual, the Nintendo chief sounds friendly and affable: utterly impossible to dislike.
He talked about the motivation for Nintendo to create such oddball platforms:
- Why do you think the Wii and DS have been such hits so far?
We were correct to aim for, with both platforms, expanding the target market. In the past few years, the number of gamers has decreased, driven by negative images such as "interferes with study" and "causes crime". With the DS that we launched in '04, we attempted to create a platform that no one could hate.
- What were your focuses when designing the systems?
When asking people why they didn't game, we received many answers like "It's too hard" and "It takes too much time". Due to this, we focused on easy controls, the ability to play short bursts while on the train, and a variety of software aimed at nontraditional consumers. For those who found button input too complex, we added pen input. As well, we formed a new company image with "Brain Training", which helped the Wii as well.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:37 am
That’s pretty cool that I just found this after spending my lunch hour in the parking lot playing my DS
Great article!
January 8th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Indeed, the Wii is an excellent casual gamer’s system. Doesn’t this article confirm that the hardcore crowd – who might still enjoy the stiff challenge and learning curve of an action game – would do well to look elsewhere?
January 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
No, such thoughts are overly simplistic. Obviously Nintendo still makes core games. Besides, I believe most “hardcore” gamers enjoy the heck out of so called casual games, even if they don’t admit on the internets!
January 10th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I suppose I will believe it when I see it – there hasn’t been a good action game on the system yet.