The following comments come from Nintendo UK marketing manager Rob Lowe...
Concerning Wii U online...
"I think that in a similar way that we waited until HD technology was almost ubiquitous before we went in there with an HD console, it's similar with the penetration of wi-fi. I think now almost every home has wi-fi or broadband. It's a universal truth that everybody is connected online and that wasn't the case when the Wii came out five years ago. If you look at 3DS and the online of that you'll get an understanding of where we're going with Wii U and we're taking that even further. We can't talk about the details yet as Mr Iwata will announce those slightly later. But with the online of 3DS it's obviously a massive leap on from where we were with DSi and DSi XL. It's smooth, robust, it doesn't drop in and out. The friend code system has also been refined. It still exists but in the same way that you'd need to pair up with friends on PSN or Xbox live. Now it's much closer to that kind of online gaming experience than what it was before. We always try and strike a balance. Because we do have more younger consumers than any other hardware manufacturer or games brand we need to protect them while also making it as accessible as possible for the more active and hardcore consumers to go online. With Wii U I think that we've already hinted that we're looking at getting people in that know and understand online gaming as it's something that perhaps we've struggled with in the past."
On third party support and exclusives...
"It's absolutely fundamental to the success of Wii U to have better third party support than we've had in the past for our previous consoles. I think Mr Iwata totally recognises that. That's why we had a Ubisoft round table session [during E3], that's why John Ricitiello was on stage at our conference. And even at a local level we're doing everything we can to support third parties much more than we have done in the past. It goes all the way through the company, from Nintendo Japan, to Nintendo Europe, to Nintendo UK. It's very different for us to act like that because traditionally we would invest our time and money more into first party. We have a sightly different business model to Microsoft and Sony, who will obviously invest more money or marketing support in third party titles. It's almost the opposite for us but I think we realise now we have to invest in a much bigger way in third party partners because there are certain types of games that we're just not specialists at. If we want to create a console that will appeal across boundaries to all different types of gamers we're going to need their support more than ever before. We're hoping we'll get a lot of exclusives as well because of the unique way the console is made. It is much easier for third parties to move their products across from Xbox 360 and PS3 to Wii U. However, the way that the controller has to make you think and make the developers think will hopefully mean that titles that are ported over will hopefully have individual features that aren't on the other systems."
On Eastern Vs. Western 3DS development...
"I think because we're a Japanese company we automatically have those connections with companies like Konami and Capcom built up over many, many years, so it makes it easier for us to get those franchises off the ground first. But I think with EA in particular we recognise that we've had a very rocky relationship in terms of products and quality of their products on our systems. Sometimes its been great, sometimes they've done bespoke stuff for us and sometimes they've very much focused on the other consoles. I think with this brave new dawn with EA its great for us and it was fantastic to see a few slides [during our E3 conference] with all of their key properties coming out, and I think that will be across both 3DS and Wii U as well."
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Concerning Wii U online...
"I think that in a similar way that we waited until HD technology was almost ubiquitous before we went in there with an HD console, it's similar with the penetration of wi-fi. I think now almost every home has wi-fi or broadband. It's a universal truth that everybody is connected online and that wasn't the case when the Wii came out five years ago. If you look at 3DS and the online of that you'll get an understanding of where we're going with Wii U and we're taking that even further. We can't talk about the details yet as Mr Iwata will announce those slightly later. But with the online of 3DS it's obviously a massive leap on from where we were with DSi and DSi XL. It's smooth, robust, it doesn't drop in and out. The friend code system has also been refined. It still exists but in the same way that you'd need to pair up with friends on PSN or Xbox live. Now it's much closer to that kind of online gaming experience than what it was before. We always try and strike a balance. Because we do have more younger consumers than any other hardware manufacturer or games brand we need to protect them while also making it as accessible as possible for the more active and hardcore consumers to go online. With Wii U I think that we've already hinted that we're looking at getting people in that know and understand online gaming as it's something that perhaps we've struggled with in the past."
On third party support and exclusives...
"It's absolutely fundamental to the success of Wii U to have better third party support than we've had in the past for our previous consoles. I think Mr Iwata totally recognises that. That's why we had a Ubisoft round table session [during E3], that's why John Ricitiello was on stage at our conference. And even at a local level we're doing everything we can to support third parties much more than we have done in the past. It goes all the way through the company, from Nintendo Japan, to Nintendo Europe, to Nintendo UK. It's very different for us to act like that because traditionally we would invest our time and money more into first party. We have a sightly different business model to Microsoft and Sony, who will obviously invest more money or marketing support in third party titles. It's almost the opposite for us but I think we realise now we have to invest in a much bigger way in third party partners because there are certain types of games that we're just not specialists at. If we want to create a console that will appeal across boundaries to all different types of gamers we're going to need their support more than ever before. We're hoping we'll get a lot of exclusives as well because of the unique way the console is made. It is much easier for third parties to move their products across from Xbox 360 and PS3 to Wii U. However, the way that the controller has to make you think and make the developers think will hopefully mean that titles that are ported over will hopefully have individual features that aren't on the other systems."
On Eastern Vs. Western 3DS development...
"I think because we're a Japanese company we automatically have those connections with companies like Konami and Capcom built up over many, many years, so it makes it easier for us to get those franchises off the ground first. But I think with EA in particular we recognise that we've had a very rocky relationship in terms of products and quality of their products on our systems. Sometimes its been great, sometimes they've done bespoke stuff for us and sometimes they've very much focused on the other consoles. I think with this brave new dawn with EA its great for us and it was fantastic to see a few slides [during our E3 conference] with all of their key properties coming out, and I think that will be across both 3DS and Wii U as well."
Link, Link
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