Feature: Miyamoto: I was worried about US Wii launch (page 2 of 2)
One other thing related to the launch, of course, was that additional Remotes and the Nunchuks were sold separately. Just what was the thinking was behind that?
A lot of people have the misunderstanding that Nintendo is not interested in network gaming."
Well, there were a couple of thoughts behind this. One is that the Wii Remote coupled with the Nunchuk looks a little complicated and really we wanted to convey the image of games that you can play without even pressing any buttons and so there was that side to it.
But at the same time I think there are a lot of games out there for which you only need the Wii remote and many of those are multiplayer games. So people may want to have four Wii remotes at home but maybe they only feel they need one or two Nunchuks. I think it my image the games that you play with the Wii remote and the Nunchuk are primarily single player or maybe at the most two-player games.
Were you surprised when reports started coming in that people were playing so vigorously that Remotes were flying out of their hands?
Obviously we knew that with the nature of the control set up it would be important for people to understand that they need to use the wrist strap and be aware of their surroundings. That's why in everything that we prepared we included that kind of information, but I was really surprised by how quickly and how exuberantly people became impassioned even over-excited about playing with the Wii Remote. That was surprisingly, definitely.
The Wii attracts non-gamers, but what about hardcore gamers? What are your thoughts for the future of hardcore gaming on the Wii?
Well, right now I still look at the Wii's sensor bar and the "pointing" technology we've developed as something that I think is going to end up being very effective for the types of games that the hardcore gamers like to play. There are also other enhancements to the Wii interface and developments being planned that are going to really make games for hardcore players a lot more fun and interesting.
Many third-party developers are porting existing gameplay to the Wii Remote. What will it take to get them to embrace different types of games?
At Nintendo we really look for the right theme or the right subject or the right content that really matches the Wii's unique interface to really bring that to the mass market in a way that is new and interesting for them. A very important thing to keep in mind when developing games is to find that new, unique idea that really takes advantage of the interface that we have introduced.
It also seems that Japanese game developers are embracing this idea of coming up with different ideas [for the Wii]. Is this evidence that Japanese developers are more open-minded or are Western developers somehow more business-oriented?
The impression that I get is that there may be perhaps more developers in Japan where the actual development staff is making the decisions about the products that they are releasing, whereas it may be that in America that there are more companies where the sales side has a bigger say in which products are being released. I wouldn't say that is an across-the-board stereotype; it's just an impression I get about some of the companies that we have seen.
With this new generation the costs of developing games are skyrocketing. What do you think are the consequences of that for gamers, and are any solutions?
You know, I think it's up to the development teams to determine which types of games they want to create. You can create games that cost a lot of money, but you also have the choice to create games that don't cost a lot of money. What I think we need to do as game developers is to create a mood within the market and within the industry that is aimed at getting consumers excited about both types of products and hopefully want to buy both of them.
In the past, the video game industry has faced many challenges such as violence in games and expanding games to a new audience. What do you think are the next big challenges facing the video game industry?
Our big challenge is to find the next new thing that other people aren't looking at and to take that and turn it into a kind of new and entertaining form of video game.
One other thing that I think is going to be the next big challenge for Nintendo is related to the idea of network entertainment. A lot of people have the misunderstanding that Nintendo is not interested in network gaming. What we are interested in isn't so much the idea of creating a game that is online and networked in a way that we have seen online up until now. We are really more interested in this idea of having the household television connected to the Internet constantly via the Wii. I think you are going to see a lot of new possibilities for new types of entertainment, such as new channels for the Wii in that type of network environment.
I think that will give rise to more social-based communities including those created by users, which is going to be a very interesting and exciting area for us to explore.
![Screen Update: Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory [PC]](/screens/111246/197628-1-1.jpg)
![Screen Update: Infamous [PS3]](/screens/134601/197568-1-1.jpg)
![Screen Update: Mushroom Men - The Spore Wars [Wii]](/screens/135221/125868-1-1.jpg)
![Screen Update: Midnight Club: Los Angeles [Xbox 360]](/screens/136701/197588-1-1.jpg)
