Takeda:
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.
Miyamoto:
As long as my way of making games are concerned, all I am concerned about technologies is, we probably cannot swim against the tide. The customers' tastes will become more and more refined. Even today, many customers who have seen HD once say they cannot go back to SD. On the other hand, quite a few of us are accepting 5.1 channel even though they are not true 5.1 channel or embracing HD even though they are not true HD. In other words, when the majority of people around us say it is OK, we are content with the situation. I have to doubt how many of us can actually tell them apart. As long as graphics are concerned, it is comparatively easier to tell them apart. When they purchase a new TV, they change how the same programs are compared with other programs. So, if we try to intensify that portion, if we are simply intensifying what is actually SD to look like HD with the hardware support, it can be understood rather easily. So, development costs associated with HD graphics will have to further increase.
We may need to go back to the basics of the issues. If we make a Wii game solely by targeting the Japan market, it will be hard to pay off, and we cannot afford to do so. I explained about Super Mario Bros. games earlier. Looking back the past sales, for example, when it sold about 5 million in Japan, approximately 20 million units were sold globally. In case of Zelda, unfortunately the software does not enjoy the high popularity in Japan that it does elsewhere, and about 5 times as much or more of the Japan sales can be expected in the overseas markets. So, even when the Japanese sales of a Zelda game were about 500,000, there was a case that global sales could reach around 5 million units in the past. In case of Mario, the global sales can be about 4 times larger than that of the Japan sales. So, if we want to, I believe the Japanese companies are still in a position to make games that can be accepted by the overseas markets. There may also be the issues within the companies about how the managers and the developers try to approach the game creations.
Regarding the question of SD or HD, it must depend on each software. For example, we have to ask ourselves if HD is really necessary to develop Wii Fit. Won't HD be better for the games like Pikmin? 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.
Iwata:
Next, let me talk a bit from an engineer's viewpoint. I want Mr. Hatano to follow up from a business perspective. I was originally a software engineer. Among all the 6 members sitting here on the podium today, I think I have the most experiences when it comes to making computer software. To put it rather simply, there are two types of computer programs: One is a program that the programmers wonder why a person is going through this trouble when this sort of thing can and/or should have been done by a computer. Another type is a program which naturally makes us feel that it is the programmer's job, not PC's, to make them. When we say we were able to design a good hardware, it is the hardware which gives least amount of trouble to the programmers in order to make the required applications. Of course, there is the opposite case.
I hate to tell this as Mr. Takeda is sitting next to me today, but in the days of Nintendo64, we were not able to make the program run properly without us making a lot of extra and seemingly unnecessary efforts. However, Nintendo GameCube and Wii are made so that programmers do not have to beat our brains out or making many extra works, so I feel that the programming has become fairly easy. Mr. Takeda himself has learned from Nintendo64 and has been specifically focusing on how possibly the hardware people can make the platform which gives the least amount of hardship to software engineers. I would like to believe that he will keep this spirit for any future products.
Finally about the business perspective, I previously showed an example of Professor Layton. I wonder how many in this industry were able to foresee the current sales situation in the overseas market even after observing the domestic sales in Japan. I also wonder if anybody was able to feel that Nintendogs and Brain Training software could be a success even after seeing the great sales in Japan. Aside from how we develop a new software, there is the point in asking how we market the software. In terms of our relationship with the third party partners, that aspect is becoming increasingly important. The number of opportunity when I discuss this with Mr. Hatano internally within our headquarters is increasing lately. So, I would like to ask Mr. Hatano (who has a long history of communicating and negotiating with the software makers) to express what he thinks lately.
Shinji Hatano (General Manager, Marketing Division) :
Each company and each developer must have its own opinion about how they develop games as well as how they conduct their businesses. Some companies have internally consistent opinions, and some others have different opinions among the developers and engineers as to HD or more sophisticated graphics. When a company believes in the need of advanced graphics in order to differentiate itself from the others, which is commonplace, the development cost naturally increases.
It may not be an appropriate comparison, but in the early days of NES, a typical software had a memory size of 24 kilo bytes. Today, when you try to use up the memory capacity of Blue-ray disc of PS3, you will need to make the program worth 54 giga bytes. 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 because the memory size of a game software has increased 2.25 million times as large as an early NES game. Of course, this is just a comparison, and I am not saying that everyone is trying to fill this large memory size although it must make sense for them to challenge this. But the general trend appears to be increasing memory size for a software. 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. It can easily be understood that making profits is becoming harder and harder.
If the trend shall continue like this, what kind of relationship should Nintendo establish?
Mr. Iwata explained a little bit about the example of Professor Layton. It has become challenging for one software to pay off the development cost with the Japan sales alone. The presence of the Japanese software companies is not what it used to be. The Japanese domestic sales are, of course, important. But the third parties have better grip on the Japanese market, so it may make sense for Nintendo to cooperate in their overseas marketing, for example, by us cooperating in both promotional and marketing activities.
We have been thinking in this manner, and we have already cooperated with some third parties. We did it last year and will do so this year on Mario & Sonic Olympic Games with Sega. The original Nintendo DS and Wii versions of Mario & Sonic Beijing Olympic Games together sold more than 11 million units last year. This year, the new Mario & Sonic Winter Olympic Games will be marketed by Nintendo in Japan and by Sega in the overseas markets. Nintendo is also doing some supportive activities for their overseas promotions too.
So, at a certain time in their development phase, when we can learn the substance of the software from the third parties, we try to think what we can do and how in order to maximize the sales. In the days when it is difficult for a software to pay off in Japan alone, we need to tackle the challenges with the software publishers. As I explained by comparing the memory sizes of a NES game and Blue-ray as an example, the development costs are increasing for the third parties. Recognizing the circumstance, our position is to cooperate wherever appropriate in order to realize the most desirable results.
Iwata:
In that regard, I anticipate the relationship between software makers and Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer to change from now. 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.[/b]
Si Paco dice que mis impresiones al leerlo no son las que me he hecho os pido disculpas por el hype erroneo ocasionado, pero leyendolo me da la impresión de que en la Wii actual según Takeda es posible usar gráficos re-escalados: cuando dice lo de "que no están preocupados de que la tecnología esté desfasada, que combinar juegos SD y HD sería lo ideal", (después de que le preguntaran qué es mejor si re-escalarlos o hacerlos HD desde el principio),o cuando Miyamoto habla de la posibilidad de insertar HD en juegos como Picmin, pudiesen usar HD(podrían se tambien juegos F-Zero, StarFox y si después de eso dice que están trabajando en un Zelda con los mejores gráficos pues me hace imaginar un Zelda escalado) pero no todos, el Wii Fit no por el coste y porque no tiene sentido.
Después Hatano diciendo que su posición es la de cooperar con los desarrolladores para obtener los mejores resultados (después de explicar el problema del HD en PS3, abriendo la puerta a un posible escalado)
Y finalmente Iwata dice que anticipa que los desarrolladores de software y Nintendo como desarrollador de Hardware van a cambiar desde ahora, que siempre discute con Mr. Hatano que no nos podemos negar al futuro diciendo: Debe ser así porque solía ser así en el pasado, es tiempo para inventar nuevos caminos. (Hatano era el que se quejaba del problema de la PS3 a la hora de desarrollar)
He debido de entenderlo muy mal, si me puede ayudar Paco porque estoy muy confundido....para mi que no niegan la posibilidad y de hecho dicen que es posible y que pueden resolverlo con las desarrolladoras no?¿
De todas formas no os cerréis a lo escrito en negrita, leerlo todo todo y sacar vuestras conclusiones que esta es la pregunta y la respuesta integra, directa sacada de la fuente original.
Si la semana pasada nos hacíamos eco de los buenos resultados financieros de la división de entretenimiento de Microsoft, hoy toca repasar los de Nintendo. La compañía nipona ha hecho públicos los datos del último semestre (pdf) y no pueden ser más desconsoladores, con su primer descenso de beneficios en seis años. Así, los ingresos han caído un 34,5% respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior y los beneficios un 54%.
![[+risas]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani3.gif "más risas")
![[poraki]](/images/smilies/nuevos/dedos.gif "por aquí!")
![[tomaaa]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/tomaa.gif "toma")
![[reojillo]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/ooooops.gif "reojillo")
? .![[plas]](/images/smilies/aplauso.gif "Aplausos")
![[tadoramo]](/images/smilies/adora.gif "Adorando")
![[qmparto]](/images/smilies/net_quemeparto.gif "Que me parto!")
