The following comments come from Satoru Iwata...
Putting aside whether people who enthusiastically play games are definitely conservative or not, it is true that such people are used to playing games with a controller with many buttons and sticks, so I can imagine there was a psychological barrier for them to "shake the remote" or to "move the controller itself," because they had to play the games without using their former skills. We analyzed that this might be one of the differences which existed between the users who accepted the Wii console and those who did not really accept it overall.
We can divide the reasons why we could not satisfy some consumers (who did not really accept the Wii overall) concerning the Wii, into two points. One was the image quality. At the time when we released the new gaming console back in 2006, HD, or high-definition TVs, was not so widely accepted in society, and we judged that the balance between the cost we would have had to pay in order to realize beautiful high-definition images and the merits we could gain from doing so was not worth it. That is why the Wii was developed based on the resolutions of old TVs, which made it inferior in terms of quality of the graphics or resolutions compared to other gaming consoles. Instead, Nintendo allocated its resources to other points and renovated the user interface. By providing entertainment products such as the Wii Remote or Wii Balance Board, we were able to make many people (who did not previously play games) game players.
It is not that our decisions were wrong, but it is just that we made these choices. So, one point was the graphics, and the other point was that this new method of game control was not welcomed by the users who were used to the conventional controllers. One of the concepts for the Wii U is "Deeper and Wider," and for "deeper," we mean that we would like to comply with the request of the users who feel that they want to enjoy the games in more depth, and also feel like "The more beautiful the images are, the better," or "I want to play games in a way that I am used to," which means "I prefer controlling the games using many buttons and sticks." Because we wanted to make it possible for such users to utilize their experience with the conventional controllers, there are many sticks and buttons on the Wii U controller, which I have shown you several times today. On the other hand, although it is not as big, bulky or heavy as it may look at first sight, there still might be people who feel psychological barriers to actually holding this controller, so we are currently discussing what we should offer such people.
In addition, you indicated that Nintendo might not have HD video game know-how because we have never developed such games. However, there was a scene from "Zelda" included in the latter half of the Wii U introduction video. This scene is from demo software we, in cooperation with a development company, created in a relatively short time before the E3 show, but a person from another Japanese software development company saw this video at E3 and commented, "These kinds of images cannot be easily produced on the gaming machines of other companies," and so we believe we have been able to prepare something, and the quality of which can be appreciated to some extent or more. Because we did this in a relatively short timeframe, we could show that we are not completely behind other companies, so I think you do not have to feel anxious about it.
However, I do not think that the Wii U will be in widespread use all over the world only with Nintendo software. Currently, in the western countries especially, war-themed gun-shooting games, which are not well-received in Japan, are very popular. It is a reality that some of these games sell 10 million units per year in those markets, and this is one valid type of video game genre. I would personally feel sad if all video games became something like that, but on the other hand, I do not think such games should disappear. Both (Nintendo software for everyone and gun-shooting games) are video games, so our aim for the Wii U is for it to be a console where various people can enjoy what they want to enjoy at their own discretion. Therefore, we have been talking to major overseas software publishers who are good at developing such games, and through our communication, we have received very positive comments from them (on the development on the Wii U). So we believe such software publishers will proactively develop software for the Wii U, and we think we can dispel the concerns you mentioned earlier by the time of its launch.
Link
Putting aside whether people who enthusiastically play games are definitely conservative or not, it is true that such people are used to playing games with a controller with many buttons and sticks, so I can imagine there was a psychological barrier for them to "shake the remote" or to "move the controller itself," because they had to play the games without using their former skills. We analyzed that this might be one of the differences which existed between the users who accepted the Wii console and those who did not really accept it overall.
We can divide the reasons why we could not satisfy some consumers (who did not really accept the Wii overall) concerning the Wii, into two points. One was the image quality. At the time when we released the new gaming console back in 2006, HD, or high-definition TVs, was not so widely accepted in society, and we judged that the balance between the cost we would have had to pay in order to realize beautiful high-definition images and the merits we could gain from doing so was not worth it. That is why the Wii was developed based on the resolutions of old TVs, which made it inferior in terms of quality of the graphics or resolutions compared to other gaming consoles. Instead, Nintendo allocated its resources to other points and renovated the user interface. By providing entertainment products such as the Wii Remote or Wii Balance Board, we were able to make many people (who did not previously play games) game players.
It is not that our decisions were wrong, but it is just that we made these choices. So, one point was the graphics, and the other point was that this new method of game control was not welcomed by the users who were used to the conventional controllers. One of the concepts for the Wii U is "Deeper and Wider," and for "deeper," we mean that we would like to comply with the request of the users who feel that they want to enjoy the games in more depth, and also feel like "The more beautiful the images are, the better," or "I want to play games in a way that I am used to," which means "I prefer controlling the games using many buttons and sticks." Because we wanted to make it possible for such users to utilize their experience with the conventional controllers, there are many sticks and buttons on the Wii U controller, which I have shown you several times today. On the other hand, although it is not as big, bulky or heavy as it may look at first sight, there still might be people who feel psychological barriers to actually holding this controller, so we are currently discussing what we should offer such people.
In addition, you indicated that Nintendo might not have HD video game know-how because we have never developed such games. However, there was a scene from "Zelda" included in the latter half of the Wii U introduction video. This scene is from demo software we, in cooperation with a development company, created in a relatively short time before the E3 show, but a person from another Japanese software development company saw this video at E3 and commented, "These kinds of images cannot be easily produced on the gaming machines of other companies," and so we believe we have been able to prepare something, and the quality of which can be appreciated to some extent or more. Because we did this in a relatively short timeframe, we could show that we are not completely behind other companies, so I think you do not have to feel anxious about it.
However, I do not think that the Wii U will be in widespread use all over the world only with Nintendo software. Currently, in the western countries especially, war-themed gun-shooting games, which are not well-received in Japan, are very popular. It is a reality that some of these games sell 10 million units per year in those markets, and this is one valid type of video game genre. I would personally feel sad if all video games became something like that, but on the other hand, I do not think such games should disappear. Both (Nintendo software for everyone and gun-shooting games) are video games, so our aim for the Wii U is for it to be a console where various people can enjoy what they want to enjoy at their own discretion. Therefore, we have been talking to major overseas software publishers who are good at developing such games, and through our communication, we have received very positive comments from them (on the development on the Wii U). So we believe such software publishers will proactively develop software for the Wii U, and we think we can dispel the concerns you mentioned earlier by the time of its launch.
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