Entrevista a Iwata, desert_fan_club revindicado

Q: You faced some skepticism in the industry coming in, over the Wii controller. But the reaction here seems to be pretty positive so far.

You've got a long line of people out there waiting to play the console. How do you feel at this point?

A: We expected the controller to be good. Of course, it makes us happy to have many people use it and say that it's good.

Q: Onstage, it looked like you were having a lot of fun playing tennis. Was it a relief to finally be able to show people what the controller can do?

A: The tennis game isn't showy onscreen, so if it had been one of the game shows up until now, we probably wouldn't have thought of doing it as the last demonstration. However, this time we wanted people to understand Wii's unique points, so I thought this type of game would be good to choose as the last demonstration, and I strongly requested it.


I think the audience's applause and laughter confirmed that my proposal was the correct one. And actually, I had a lot of fun, as well.

Q: So far we've seen the controller used to cast a fishing line, swing a sword, conduct an orchestra, play drums. In what other ways will the controller be used?

A: There's a lot of potential for a controller that you can use to point to something and move it on the screen and use to convey various motions to the machine. But I can't specifically comment on the uses (for competitive reasons).

Q: When you look at market share, a lot of people in the industry have been assuming that Nintendo might come in third in this upcoming generation. Are people underestimating you as a company?

A: People will probably come to understand the merits of what Nintendo is trying to do. For our part, our goal isn't to have a certain percentage of the market or to be a certain number. ...

Of course, we'd like to be No. 1, but we ourselves look at the results of what we've done, and we think the important thing is whether we've increased the number of people playing games and whether we've succeeded in breaking down the barriers to people playing in their homes.

Nintendo's approach to our work is to greatly increase the population of gamers. When we've created a new market from the increase, the result will be the possibility that Nintendo will be the No. 1 market leader. I think that's my secret.

Q: How do you feel about the negative reaction to the name Wii?

A: I thought there would be various responses. For example, I knew people who had hoped for a more game machinelike name would think it was an incompatible name. What I wanted to have happen was that people who didn't know that Game Boy Advance and GBA are the same thing would remember Wii right away because it doesn't need to be abbreviated.

Also, we wanted to express that it was something for everyone. So even if people initially oppose it, if they come to accept the name, we thought it would become a big strength. That's why we decided on it.

By the way, I've heard that in America, people initially didn't like the name Game Boy.

Q: Sony showed its own motion-sensing controller this week. What do you think?

A: A motion-sensing controller that you hold with both hands is completely different from one that you can use with either your right or left hand. Worldwide, bloggers have been writing that they copied us, but I don't really think we've been copied.

I don't think at all that we've lost Wii's advantage.

We've come out with a unique, new innovation. I think the fact that a company would do something similar is an admission from the outside that it has value. So instead of getting angry, we should celebrate.

Q: You mentioned bloggers. Do you read blogs?

A: I read blogs quite a bit.

Q: Gaming blogs or other blogs?

A: I read various things, but I use a blog search engine to look for blogs related to my work. But I also read blogs that aren't related to games.

Q: Unlike Sony, you did not announce pricing or the launch date for your new console this week.

On pricing, can you give a general sense for how you might compare to something like the $600 version of the PlayStation 3?

A: First of all, all we've said is that we'll have an affordable price range.

We're using "affordable" in the sense that the price won't be significantly higher than Nintendo's prices have been historically. Compared with $600, anything is affordable, so it's absurd to even compare our price.

Q: When do you plan to announce the pricing and launch date?

A: Microsoft didn't announce Xbox 360's price at last year's E3. And the year before that, the prices for the PSP and the DS weren't announced, so I don't think it's unusual at all that we're not announcing the price at E3 this time.

But the Wii will come out in the fourth quarter, so I expect to talk about it around summer.