Nintendo Corp. management briefing

[DEXTERITY]

It's a long read so I didn't post it..

http://cube.ign.com/articles/713/713676p1.html

[Haoshiro]

I found the last page the most interesting:

Question: Mr. Miyamoto, aren't you facing any issues when you are making software due to the fact that Wii is not HD-ready or haven't you felt the Wii does not have high enough spec? How about you, Mr. Takeda?

Miyamoto: I have made demo software for E3 and I have been making Wii titles now, but I have never felt that Wii needs more processing power. Actually, whatever spec numbers you may be talking about, there are always some technological limit. If anyone makes a game for HD, the hardware machine power must become more than quadrupled just to make it HD applicable. A similar thing can be said about the memory size. When developers are told that they can use as much memory size as they want, someone use them indiscriminately without thinking how it will affect other development activities, and it is becoming difficult for game directors to control the whole game development process. Such uncoordinated activities by each developer make the hardware work less efficiently and unnecessary development efforts must be taken for these activities. What we are trying to do is to create brand new freestyle entertainment that can be enjoyed by all the family members as well as by a single player. In making such entertainment, I have never felt stress about the power of Wii. Honestly, I have not been able to use 100% of GameCube's power yet, so I am very happy with Wii's far superior functionality.

Takeda: I don't think we have any problem about the hardware. It's just the matter of how you use the available technologies. We could use technologies to effectively process HD. In fact, Wii is using 90nano, SA and other state of the art technologies as well as DRAM integrated technology that others are also doing. Only the difference is, we are using these technologies differently from the others. Each company has its own idea on how they should use the technologies, and we believe our ways are the most desirable one for software creators.

Iwata: I am still a developer at heart, so allow me to add my comment. I think it is just a matter of the balance. As I said earlier, the notion to be able to make more beautiful graphics is tempting. High-resolution sounds tempting too. I myself can tell the resulted difference in these areas even if many others can't, and I don't say I don't like technologies. I am one of the engineers so I am excited with new functionality. However, if I only listen to the voices of my engineer spirit, the resulted machine will be bigger in size, will take a longer time to start playing after turning on the switch and must be pretty difficult to employ such unique functions as WiiConnect24. So, we made the decision by asking ourselves, "which would let us make more attractive proposals to the consumers?" and "which will be the more balanced way to use the technologies?" We did not include some functions but it is not because we couldn't do so. It was just that we eliminated them to make Wii a better proposal. Of course, we have had very heated discussions. Now that we had decided to take this approach, after attending E3 and having listened to the feedback from so many people, we are convinced that the decision we made was the right one. Of course, 5 years from today or 10 years from today, we will need to review and determine the new balance in order to come up with our new proposals in terms of the actual needs of the customers and many other factors including affordable price. I am not saying that Nintendo will never launch HD-ready hardware. Rather, it can happen. However, when we seriously look into the current penetration ratio of HD TV, the need to take a long time to start software applications after turning on the power, the big console body, heat, power consumption, etc., etc., we had to make a more well-balanced machine. So, we have no regret about Wii in terms of its well-balanced nature.

I agree with them, it's all about how you balance and design the hardware that makes it effective.

And Miyamoto has never even used 100% of the GameCube? Even with Zelda: Twighlight Princess? Wow... :)

[Dagless]

Aye the Cube is a strange machine. so. if you take the old "it's twice as powerful" statement - 200%. the cube never hit 100%. you're talking a massive potential maximum power limit on the Wii. even though it is in SD.

I know my logic is probably flawed. But still. TP wasn't/isn't the peak of the Cubes power. I tip my cap to Nintendo.

[GFLPraxis]

Aye the Cube is a strange machine. so. if you take the old "it's twice as powerful" statement - 200%. the cube never hit 100%. you're talking a massive potential maximum power limit on the Wii. even though it is in SD.

I know my logic is probably flawed. But still. TP wasn't/isn't the peak of the Cubes power. I tip my cap to Nintendo.

What twice as powerful statement? IIRC it was "2-3 times more powerful".

[BlizzardBomb]

Wasn't the 2x more powerful figure instantly dismissed by Nintendo as being pulled out of thin air?

[GFLPraxis]

Wasn't the 2x more powerful figure instantly dismissed by Nintendo as being pulled out of thin air?

Yup.

[GFLPraxis]

I'm really excited about the hardware choices they made with the Wii.

I went NES->SNES->N64->GameCube, and GameBoy -> Game Gear -> GameBoy Color -> GameBoy Advance SP -> DS. I never experienced load times. Ever. When I got a PS2, people thought I was weird when I complained about the load times in Kingdom Hearts 2 (relatively short).

The Wii has more EDRAM than the XBox 360 and tons of 1T-SRAM. I'm sure it'll use the fastest DVD drives available on the market (like the XBox 360 does), but it can populate the RAM faster because:
(A) The RAM is faster than the 360's.
(B) There is 1/5th the RAM.
(C) The textures are for SDTV and 1/6th the size, and the environments aren't as high quality

The load times should be ridiculously fast compared to the other consoles.

[Dagless]

They better be :)
I have a load story too. I was brought up with NES, Mega Drive, N64. Gameboy only in the handheld section. But running alongside them was also the Commodore Amiga. I swear. Rise of the Robots you could make a full dinner, eat it, watch Channel 4 news, have a game of tennis in the back garden at which point the Amiga would finally have it fully loaded up and ready to play.

I said back then I'd never go back to loading. I don't know how people can put up with loading. or am I more surprised that companies sacrifice load times for higher quality graphics and the likes.

[BlizzardBomb]

I'm really excited about the hardware choices they made with the Wii.

I went NES->SNES->N64->GameCube, and GameBoy -> Game Gear -> GameBoy Color -> GameBoy Advance SP -> DS. I never experienced load times. Ever. When I got a PS2, people thought I was weird when I complained about the load times in Kingdom Hearts 2 (relatively short).

That's the main reason I liked Wind Waker. Smash Bros. Melee also had some extremely snappy loading times. Of course, Nintendo's cartridge based consoles are much quicker at loading but (first and second-party) Gamecube games had easily bearable loading times. However, one thing that I find a bit annoying on most CD based games is the frequent need for autosaves, at least Melee let you do stuff while it saved.

[blitzkrieg79]

I'm really excited about the hardware choices they made with the Wii.

I went NES->SNES->N64->GameCube, and GameBoy -> Game Gear -> GameBoy Color -> GameBoy Advance SP -> DS. I never experienced load times. Ever. When I got a PS2, people thought I was weird when I complained about the load times in Kingdom Hearts 2 (relatively short).

The Wii has more EDRAM than the XBox 360 and tons of 1T-SRAM. I'm sure it'll use the fastest DVD drives available on the market (like the XBox 360 does), but it can populate the RAM faster because:
(A) The RAM is faster than the 360's.
(B) There is 1/5th the RAM.
(C) The textures are for SDTV and 1/6th the size, and the environments aren't as high quality

The load times should be ridiculously fast compared to the other consoles.

The load times on PS1 and especially on PS2 is what made me dislike console gaming, sure the games look better than lets say 10 years ago but hell they definately don't play better and I just don't feel the same gaming experience just because of the load times which with some games such as Max Payne on PS2 make games unplayable/unenjoyable and plain simply frustrating.

I think load times is a major issue with todays consoles minus Nintendo who are the only ones who have it right.

[GFLPraxis]

I love how the Wii has instant-on and standby mode. I hope to use that a lot :) Glad to see you guys agree with me about load times.

Consoles should not have load times. I expect it on my PC. I don't expect my consoles to act like my PC. I use a PC for gaming when I want a game I can mod and hack to my heart's content and play with a mouse, and I know I'll get load times. I get my hands dirty in the game's guts and try to get the best performance by tweaking settings.

With consoles I expect simplicity...shortest load times possible, no maintenence, ever.

[Dagless]

It's a nice vision. in theory the Wii will be instant on, super load (thanks to Ram and smaller game sizes)... I just hope it holds up in reality.

[IscariotJ]

Load times? Load times?!?!?! Don't get me started on load times. It's one of the reasons that my PSP sits unplayed for months, until I've forgotten how bad, and power it back up again. I only play two games on it ( GTA, POP ), but the load times on each make the games unbearable.

I think that Nintendo have got it right with the 'Cube ( very quick loading times ), DS ( instant on, sleep mode ), if that carries over to the Wii, I'll be very happy.

[GFLPraxis]

I think, however, that load times are exponentially more important on a handheld. What is frustrating and inconveniencing on a console equates to unplayability on a handheld.

[DEXTERITY]

here is a webcasting link.

http://www.irwebcasting.com/060607/04/969fa340e1/main/index_hi.htm

and check this out

http://www.irwebcasting.com/060607/04/969fa340e1/image/p21.gif

"Nintendo now claims has greater market share than the PlayStation 2 in Japan. In one chart, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata displayed how the DS has sold 8.43 million units in just 18 months in Japan--outpacing the adoption rates of the both the PS2 and Nintendo's best-selling platform, the Game Boy Advance."

I told people in stores since day one when the DS came out it would be huge. same thing with Nintendogs and Brain Age. So many people doubted what we were doing. Those same people are now trading in their psp for a DS.. lol

[Dagless]

No surprise there. The DS is just freakin huge. I remember before the days of rumour sites and that, when I got an email from Nintendo talking about the DS. really was a "what... on... earth..." moment. Just goes to show the public really does want something new and theres such a huge market in the non-gamer. The Wii has the next-gen sorted. though they're not competing. totally different system and that.
Take my house. I was the only gamer. then my sister got into the DS, now my parents are loving Tetris and Brain Training. They get the same people into the Wii and theres no stopping it.

[MacRumorUser]

The DS has huge, nay enourmous potential to make people who have never gamed before pick up the stylus.

I've bore witness to this and now those people who are not young trendy types, but middle aged - go out and buy a DS for brainage, soduku and such.

More females are buying the DS than they have any other console.

The biggest challenge for nintendo is getting it into peoples hands, and breaking the pre-conception and rules.

The wii could REALLY change how video games are perceived. More so than that turd sony are pulling from the hind quarters of sony hq, and far more than the 360 willl ever do. The potential to really get non gamers who still generally percieve gaming as school boyish to mainstream established entertainment can not be sneezed at.

They need to continue to innovate and market their software and target advertising to that above 30+ age group. Then we really will see somthing that will do exactly what Nintendo promised.... a...

REVOLUTION.


Keeping my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed. If it manages to get into enough peoples hands, I'm sure it will be 'massive'.....

[DeSnousa]

[...] I was the only gamer. then my sister got into the DS, now my parents are loving Tetris and Brain Training. They get the same people into the Wii and theres no stopping it.

Do you know what that means, mum the Wii is just like the DS get the 'family' one ;) :D

[Dagless]

More females are buying the DS than they have any other console.

It's funny how snobbish a lot of the blogosphere has been about Nintendo attracting female gamers. I think we're safe here, but people saying "gaming should only be hardcore" "no girls allowed" etc is really apparent in the lesser educated forums.
I think it's great. I was in Manchester with a mate once, I was looking at the back of the Princess Peach box and a girl who worked there came over "I can't wait for this to come out, looks fun." before we dove into a mini conversation about DS games. She jokingly became known as my wife. then a few days later there was a crowd of girls around the DS section all talking about what games they're getting. good looking ones too! looking around there was a few scallies looking at PS2 second hand games (was very fitting) and the rest of the shop was clear.

meh. another mate went to a Westlife concert years ago. when asked why he went he said "the band a ******. I'm here for the girls". made so much sense :)