In-Depth Nintendo Q&A News

The English translation to Nintendo's Q&A session following the company's recent six month financial results has finally arrived.  Much of the information has already been revealed via hasty Google translations of the original Japanese transcript; however, like my mother always says, the devil is in the detail.

Nintencats, Online & Vitality Sensor

Opening the session, Shiegru Miyamoto provided an insight into his current musings, particularly what the Nintendo DSi LL will bring and a suggestion that something involving cats could be the next title to emerge from his hobbies.

"Thus one of our ideas is an 'in-house DS game play'," Miyamoto-san claimed when talking about the role of the DSi LL.  "Another idea is what I have been calling as a public space application. Currently we are focusing on DS as a game console that can be used outside of the home. Actually because Dragon Quest IX made Passing-By Connection much more popular, there has been an increase in people carrying around their DS, and we are trying to develop something unique around that factor."

"And, recently I have cats. That's all!"

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata moved on to discuss his thoughts about digital distribution, revealing that the online connection ratio of the Wii is Japan is "around 35%" and the DS "is probably, 20% or so".

Iwata-san doesn't appear to see digital distribution changing the landscape in the short term however, claiming, "In short, in 20 years or so I might say it will have probably changed. But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree with opinions that no one will purchase titles at retailers by then."

Iwata-san moves onto suggest that WiiWare and DSiWare hasn't established a market yet and wanted to promote a window-shopping culture for the platforms.  

"The current situation on Wii Shopping Channel or Nintendo DSi Shop is like a purchase with specific intent, where customers who already know the name and information of the game they want directly seek out what they want and bring it to the register to purchase," he said.  "Internally we have been discussing that we have to engage customers with less information to purchase. And as an experiment, we will be offering demo versions of specific titles next month on a trial basis to see if it can widen the customers. But I don't think that the demo version is the final solution. I believe that until customers have a reason to visit Wii Shopping Channel or Nintendo DSi Shop without purpose, digital distribution will not become popular."

As previously reported, Miyamoto-san revealed that he's looking at MotionPlus compatibility for the next Legend of Zelda on Wii.  "... we are utilizing Wii MotionPlus," Miyamoto proclaimed.  "What has been disclosed so far is that we are finding the most efficient way to utilize Wii MotionPlus to realize the realistic and actual feeling of fighting with the sword. As for targeting, we are utilizing the pointing system of Wii Remote on the previous title. This time we are planning a more convenient and comfortable pointing system."

The panel was also asked about the Vitality Sensor, which was announced at E3 but has still yet to be shown in any context.  Miyamoto-san's answer failed to provide any tangible details, but the response was intriguing.

"Based on my experiences, to measure something invisible and have it turn into something tangible like a number like weighing myself on Wii Fit, or to give a numeric value to something invisible in our daily life will be materials of new plays which will feel familiar to us or can improve our lifestyles," he claimed.  "We are currently developing an efficient utilization around that factor."

Iwata-san added to the comment and suggested that we may not see anything until this time next year.  "I have to refrain from disclosing too much to keep the surprises of announcement; but please note that Wii Vitality Sensor is not a simple pulsimeter. I have a strong feeling something fun will appear around this gadget, and am planning to put it as one of the next year's main topics."

HD, Costs & Future Hardware

The Q&A session moved onto the inevitable questions surrounding Nintendo's adoption of HD technology.  The answers were brilliantly opaque, but suggestive that Nintendo is looking to implement both; after all, as Miyamoto-san pointed out, what's the point of having Wii Fit in HD?  Perhaps Nintendo's going to surprise everybody and introduce its own standard - the ND.  Either way it's the traditional balance between cost and cutting-edge technology that has been central to Nintendo's strategy throughout the years.

"Since our division has been reviewing and developing a number of hardware, we are looking into many different things, including HD and SD," Genyo Takeda, General Manager Integrated Research & Development Division, revealed.  "Also included is the review over the systems with which the creators can easily create video games with limited budget and resources."

"However, we have not come to the stage where we can announce which is the most appropriate means. Since an increasing number of the TV sets at home around the world are becoming HD today, it will be natural for a machine to be able to generate graphics that people will be accustomed to see on HD televisions. Since the ordinary TV programs are now shifting to HD, moving to HD appears to me a natural flow."

I believe that we should take the most appropriate balance. We are not too much concerned about if the technology itself is the state-of-the-art or rather old-fashioned. If we can find out the most appropriate medium, between SD and HD, and flexibly move around them depending on the game's contents, it will be good, I think."

Takeda-san employed a fitting analogy to compare the storage space of a NES cartridge and a PS3 Blu-ray disc, but suggested that the increase in size doesn't correlate to the increase of game sales.

"If 24 kilo bytes of NES software can fit into 200cc tea cup, you will need enough water to fill a 25 meter swimming pool in order to make full use of a PS3 disc," he claimed.  "On the other hand, what has become of the sales per software? It has increased for sure, but it has not increased 1 million times, let alone 2 million times."

Revealing that Nintendo doesn't want to be caught behind however, Miaymoto-san quipped, "As long as my way of making games are concerned, all I am concerned about technologies is, we probably cannot swim against the tide."

"Won't HD be better for the games like Pikmin?" he pondered.  "The developers should choose the most appropriate graphical format depending on the software they make. To Nintendo, our theme is how we can prepare the SDK library to cater to the needs of the developers, with which the developers can more easily develop their games. In fact, Nintendo has been working with such mission."

Continuing the talk of Nintendo's next hardware move, Iwata-san described the technical hurdles that he and other developers had to leap to get the Nintendo64 to perform, which was addressed with the GameCube and Wii, and suggested they will "... keep this spirit for any future products."

Finally, Iwata-san suggested that the relationship between third-party publishers and Nintendo will have to change soon because "quite a few of the software makers are significantly concerned about the current situation".  

Iwata-san explained, "In regard to the relationship, I often discuss with Mr. Hatano lately that we cannot foresee the future by saying, "It must be like this because it used to be that way in the past." It is time we have to invent new ways."